By Maaike Matelski – This year marks the 15th anniversary of my first visit to Myanmar to do research on civil society under authoritarian rule. Since that time the country has gone through military dictatorship, a top-down political liberalization process, a nascent semi-democracy, extreme violence against ethnic minorities, and a military coup in February 2021, met with severe country-wide resistance and unprecedented levels of repression. Since the military conscription law announced in 2024, ever more young people have joined the ranks of the growing Myanmar population in Thailand, fearing forced recruitment to fight a senseless war against their fellow people.
Although Thailand does not formally recognize refugees, it hosts a large community of migrants from Myanmar, including from neighbouring Shan State. A minority of them come under UNHCR protection, but the majority have to find their way around temporary stays, expensive visa runs, and illicit, often underpaid work. Since the military coup, young people in Myanmar saw their aspirations nipped in the bud, with universities and other public facilities either closed, on strike, or being forced under military command. Internet access, only introduced widely in the last decade, is again restricted, and the military targets any area that they suspect of resistance with randomized airstrikes, making civilian victims and sowing fear and resentment. As a result, I find myself increasingly studying forced displacement in addition to the questions around civil society advocacy and activist strategies that formed the core of my research on Myanmar so far.
As part of my starter grant Ethnographic Impact for Social Justice, I was fortunate to be able to co-organize a workshop on documentary making for young people of Shan ethnicity, who show close proximity to Thai in terms of appearance, religion and, to a certain extent, language. Of the ten attendees, some had only recently come to Thailand, while others were born and raised there and had only occasionally visited Myanmar. Some in their third generation of displacement, others joining the ranks after the conscription law, showing me pictures of their home towns where they hope to be able to return to soon. All participated actively in the workshop, with joy and interest, supporting each other and smiling throughout, except when the occasional helicopter flew over and they realized that they no longer had to run for shelter. Taking diligent notes in the small books with Amsterdam canal houses that I brought, one participant told me ‘I heard you made them narrow in order to pay less tax’.
During the workshop, led by an experienced film maker previously involved in the Oscar-nominated documentary Burma VJ, we discussed light angles, camera work and storytelling, but also watched clips from favourite documentaries of the film maker and myself. Participants were particularly inspired by the short film ‘Letter to San Zaw Htway’, co-produced in the Netherlands, in which friends of an ever-smiling activist and former political prisoner who passed away in 2017 convey their experiences since the coup in letters addressed to him. This was found to be a particularly powerful tool to make visible what cannot easily be shown – the everyday experiences in Myanmar since the 2021 coup, where internet access is increasingly restricted and people can be imprisoned, tortured or disappeared for as little as liking a social media post.
In the coming months, participants will work in groups to produce two short documentaries detailing their lives as Shan migrants in Thailand, as well as their contact with people back home. They will document how they struggle to obtain the right paperwork, their experiences when overstaying their visa and risking deportation, and their work in hospitality, the food industry or construction sites, not always being paid enough, or in time. We will get a glimpse of their efforts to teach Shan migrant children English and Thai language or computer skills, to bring news to Shan people in Thailand and beyond, and to continue their disrupted education. During the brainstorm for topics and storylines I see them chew on my advice to ‘show, don’t tell’, keep it personal, and try to keep a light tone, in order to increase the potential audience for their films.
As long as the military holds on to power, which is increasingly questionable, millions of displaced people from Myanmar have to rely on humanitarian support, trauma healing and skills training, programmes and scholarships to continue their education abroad. On the last day of the workshop, the US president announced a freeze of all USAID projects, and it is not yet clear to what extent assistance for Myanmar people will be affected. In the current political climate, and in an era of polycrisis, their needs may not easily be met either at home or abroad. Thus, the support for this group of young Shan people through the Ethnographic Impact for Social Justice project is much welcomed. Myanmar people will require our solidarity and assistance until they are able to safely return back home and build up their lives disrupted by the coup.
Maaike Matelski is assistant professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the VU.
Hello Maaike,
Thank you for this update. It shows the importance of returning to the field again and again. This way, you get a much better idea of the changes taking place and can build on established partnerships. You practice your “show-do not tell advice” yourself, by showing your solidarity and advice as long as Shan and other people in Myanmar need it.
Best wishes,
Freek