In this second article in my series of blog posts, I discuss my experience as a Visiting Researcher at RMIT Vietnam from 15th to 30th September 2024, thanks to funding from London College of Fashion (LCF) and support from the University of the Arts London (UAL) International Partnerships team.
During this period, I conducted ethnographic research within the Ta Oi and Paco communities (i.e. 2 of the 54 ethnic minority groups living in Vietnam) in the rural village of A Luoi, accompanied by Quynh Le (Chief Operating Officer of the non-governmental organisation CPED – Centre for Preservation and Economic Development) thanks to a kind connection from Victoria Ho (PhD researcher at LCF and Head Designer at Fashion4Freedom). Quynh was invaluable for my fieldwork, as she helped me receive a license from the government to enter the village, checked my ethics forms and interview questions prior to my visit, gave me access to community members, acted as an interpreter during my engagement with the Indigenous people, and managed the payments to the artisans for their time and craft demonstrations.
After lots of planning, I fully immersed myself in this context for 3 days, kindly hosted by the Indigenous community. As soon as I arrived in the homestay, I noticed a sign saying: “Come as a king, leave as a friend, return as family” – evidencing the commendable hospitality of Vietnamese people. I conducted ethnographic research, through verbal interactions (mediated by Quynh as an interpreter) but also paying close attention to body language and relying on the language of making. This way, I documented endangered textile craft techniques (including Deng textile weaving, hand lead beading, wood carving, mat weaving, basked weaving and hand embroidery) alongside other cultural practices (like music and dance performances) and elements of community life (such as making traditional food) while eliciting the artisans’ needs and aspirations for cultural sustainability and social change.
Besides reflecting on my own personal journey living, working and travelling – albeit for a short period – in Vietnam, and visiting relevant museums and art galleries to understand the local history, social context and cultural heritage, my writing is also informed by interviews with academics (Dr Donna Cleveland and Corinna Joyce of RMIT Vietnam), practitioners (Quynh Le of CPED) and fashion designers (Thao Vu, Founder of Kilomet109) working in this field.
Since this work is about decolonising, it is important to acknowledge my positionality as a design researcher, originally from Italy but living in the UK, with no prior experience of working in Vietnam, although having conducted participatory action research with artisans in other countries in the Global South (Brazil and South Africa) and with other marginalised groups (such as refugees and asylum seekers). Despite the initial sense of guilt I felt for being an external researcher visiting an Indigenous community for a short time, the artisans appreciated my ethical approach and genuine interest and appreciation for their culture. This is important considering that craft skills are increasingly getting lost and local young people often have no other choice than migrating to cities to work in factories and earn a stable income instead of practising and sustaining their traditional know-how. A memorable and heart-warming experience for me was when the community performed a traditional song and invited me to dance with them to celebrate my arrival and welcome me in their village. During my visit, the artisans often wanted to be proudly photographed with me, while it is frequently the opposite, and we – as external researchers – visit communities to observe and photograph them. After I left, they kept asking Quynh how I was doing, demonstrating we had built a meaningful connection despite the short time of our engagement, and I had a positive impact on them, making them feel valued and, in turn, encouraging them to value their own crafts more.
Through this experience, I have learned that craftsmanship is part of the everyday life of the Indigenous community, as stated by one of the Ta Oi artisans I interviewed:
We are born with our culture, and we carry it throughout our life. [...] I’m passionate about my craft, even if the income I make from it is not much.
The Indigenous people I met grow all their food, use bamboo for numerous purposes, don’t discard any materials, and widely use natural dyes (such as black dye from ebony fruit from the Mekong Delta area) for their textiles. During my stay in Vietnam, it was evident how climate change is very much affecting people in Vietnam, with increasingly frequent and severe typhoons and floodings destroying harvests and compromising artisans’ production processes and livelihoods. Nevertheless, my fieldwork has highlighted the resourcefulness, reciprocity, and resilience of Indigenous people.
The artisans produce high quality textiles (with beads embedded into the hand-woven cloth), but cannot sew and either send their fabrics to local tailors who make basic clothes, or produce simple objects, with low aesthetic value and which therefore don’t sell well. The artisans expressed a real openness and willingness to collaborate with designers to innovate their products and undertake skills training, as stated by one Ta Oi weaver:
We want to collaborate with designers who could help us with storytelling, product development, and diversification, to develop innovative and contemporary products that sell more. Now, we can only make basic products.
There seems to be an opportunity for developing ‘hybrid crafts’ which might emerge from a different type of imagination around past, present, and future. The artisans didn’t express concerns for potential cultural appropriation practices. Furthermore, there are so many different cultural expressions in Vietnam, and diverse ethnic minority groups live together, making cultural differences become quite blurred. Although Vietnam has a long history of colonisation and oppression, whose legacies are still evident, the people I have engaged with didn’t show a strong concern about decolonising design.
The artisans would also like to collaborate with researchers to study the meanings of symbols traditionally used, preserve their cultural heritage, document their craft processes and tell stories of community life, such as through videos, 3D scanning of objects and augmented reality experiences, so that consumers could understand and value the products more. Although the artisans charge very little money for their labour, they sustain themselves not only through their crafts, but also through farming, and hospitality – this contributes to making their lives more resilient. In fact, they rely on an ecology of connected community, culture, and making that keeps them off the floor. The artisans expressed a lack of funding and government support to sustain traditional crafts in Vietnam – although some government-funded initiatives have been delivered, they are often short-term and lack an infrastructure to sustain them. An exemplar case I’ve investigated through my fieldwork is Fashion4Freedom. They support sustainable development by adopting an AID + TRADE model, combining a social enterprise and a local NGO (CPED), and using philanthropic funds to deliver skills training and empower marginalised rural craft producers into creative entrepreneurs. In this regard, Quynh Le of CPED stated:
Our main concern is long-term economic impact. What matters to us is the legacy that we build in the community through our projects. We don’t do charity, but we want to make the artisans become self-reliant.
Overall, although 3 days was a short period of time, the fieldwork was very insightful for me to get a sense of the place, community life, and cultural practices. The experience has highlighted the crucial need for designers to build a cultural sensibility when entering a community and immersing themselves in a context, spending time to build trust relationships and paying respect for traditional cultural practices and local wisdom. There is a need to facilitate and activate participatory processes of change, and decolonise dominant design practice, moving towards one that places non-Western indigenous knowledges and experiences on an equal footing, bridging cultures, and fostering cultural sustainability and social justice, through collaborative creative practice. This sentiment is well articulated by Dr Donna Cleveland, who stated:
We need to acknowledge and respect communities’ cultural practices of the past to find our way into the future. [...] The way forward is to co-design with community members and leverage their own sustainable practices. [...] Designs need to come from within, from the place and local culture. [...] We have so much to learn from them.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge that some of the insights shared here were also informed by my collaboration and contribution to the ‘Regenerative Vietnam’ project led by Dr Jessica Wilkinson and Dr Yoko Akama (of RMIT University in Melbourne). The project entailed a series of hands-on co-creation workshops (including a World Cafe activity, site visits, drawing maps, coconut leaf weaving, creative writing) aimed at identifying opportunities for social, cultural, ecological and economic sustainability, and developing a regenerative roadmap for businesses and communities’ transition in light of climate change. To give you an insight into my experience, I share with you a piece of creative writing – “On (dis)connection” – which I produced during a workshop led by David Carlin (Emeritus Professor at RMIT University) who guided us through a process of gathering insights from the fieldwork, and transmuting them into an experimental piece of writing, through wondering and wandering. Going beyond the acknowledgement that we must decolonise ourselves, I hope to share an insight into what it is like to be on the other end of our best endeavours.
On (dis)connection
I am a wanderer. — Seeking connections to places. — I feel displaced. — Am I invited to this place? — Where are the Indigenous people? — This place is full of contrasts. — As I map the environment, — I sense the human and non-human. — I omit all what’s man-made. — I take time. I go far. — I embrace serendipity. — I feel discomfort in this unrealised utopia. — Disruption. Destruction. — An artist comes to guide me, — She gives me prompts for conversations. — Weaving cultures, playing with them, — With hands, heart, head, humour. — I am wondering about a more convivial world. — It is wonderful! — It’s a shift, —
From disconnection to connection. — All what it takes is me — To connect or disconnect to a place.
Regenerating cultures. — Places to regenerate — Over time. — Linear or cyclical. — Everyone is invited. — There is no artistry here! — What is creative practice? — Writing, drawing, weaving, listening. — It is an act of noticing. — Wandering and wondering — About a more convivial place. — Connected or disconnected? — Nature teaches us. — We shift our relation to nature. — The human and non-human. — This world is so hot! — It is humid. — Nature cools me down. — I am soaked in rain — As I wander through this place. — I am immersed in this context. — Do I belong here? — I feel displaced, but also welcomed. — It’s full of contrasts. — Utopia or dystopia? — Climate change is real! — It is political.
Let’s ask nature. — Let’s draw on indigenous knowledge. — It’s an act of co-design — Within a creative ecology of artists and non-artists. — Is it serendipitous or planned? — We need a roadmap, — Or a plurality of roadmaps? — It’s not about problem solving, — But framing, or reframing. — Yet, climate change is real! — It requires urgent action. — Dig deeper into your values. — Embrace the way of rebellion. — Let go of authority and authorship. — Disrupt. Destruct. — Weave new narratives: — Equitable, diverse, inclusive, — Indigenous, convivial, connected — Routes for cultural regeneration. — Embrace discomfort. — Take a shift. — Listen to changes. — Activate change. — In yourself, and around you!
If you are interested in finding out more about my creative journey into the resourcefulness, reciprocity and resilience of Indigenous communities in Vietnam, I invite you to come and attend my talk with PhD researcher Victoria Ho, as part of LCF Sampled x Research, taking place at London College of Fashion (LCF), East Bank, on 12th February 2025 from 6pm to 8pm.
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