My role & involvement:

• The role that I have been playing has been to develop the proposal for approval from the College, corresponding with CIPE (Centre for International & Professional experience), as well as working closely with the Professor attached to the LAB Marvin Montefrio, the Head of Studies of our Environmental Studies programme.
• Alongside my mentors and teachers Suwitra, Kwiv, and Yatee, we crafted a 5 day experiential learning programme that steeped students’ in the way of life of the P’Ka Yaw, one of the major Indigenous ethnic groups of Thailand.

Program Summary:

This LAB focuses on the different resources that are essential to supporting human and ecological life – water, food, and the broader environment. Participants are invited to learn from the Par K’Yaw community of Northern Thailand, a Southeast Asian ethnic hilltribe group whose Indigenous ways of living are rooted in a deep relationship with land, ecology and culture.

Participants will be able to contrast activities in Chiang Mai city with life in the mountains by living among two Par K’Yaw villages, Nong Tao and Huay I Khang. Through the process, the LAB seeks to provoke reflections about modern society (including arguments that it over-prioritises financial capital), and identify possible shifts towards other forms of society (such as one that focuses on nurturing other forms of capital). Central to the LAB is the integration of multiple pedagogies and sources of ‘knowledge’: hands-on field experiences, guided reflection, academic scholarship, and Indigenous knowledge. As this LAB coincides with the coffee harvest season, coffee will be an anchor crop for learning and students will be able participate in the coffee harvest, conditions permitting.

Towards the tail end of the LAB, students will be invited to illustrate their learning through a short sharing with their fellow peers as well as the host community. This not only serves to ground their personal learning, but also contribute to the host community; articulating how they have grown through this experience is one of the key tenets of building a community that focuses on other forms of capital.

Through this LAB, participants:

1. Deepen their knowledge of ecology and economy through direct engagement with the Par K’Yaw (i.e. Karen/Karenni) community and their rhythms of living, leading students to:
   1. Challenge assumptions in modern-day economy, models of development (including valuation and land rights) through the stopover in the city,
   2. Explore viable alternatives through the Indigenous way-of-life,
   3. Develop an introductory understanding of geography and natural resources,  through exposure to seasonal and natural cycles of agriculture,
   4. Build nutritional knowledge and deepen somatic awareness (developing a greater attentiveness and directing introspection towards one’s own body) by engaging with hands-on activities such as harvesting and post-harvest processing, making their own meals.
2. Practice their inquiry and narratives skills through:
   1. Immersing in hands-on field experiences, guided reflections, academic scholarship, and Indigenous knowledge and integrating these different approaches
   2. Creation and development of their self-identified theme of interest/learning
3. Apply this knowledge by reflecting on their own ‘ways of living’, i.e. consumption & production of resources, especially centred around food.