A Mirror to the People (part 1)

http://www.mirrorartgroup.org/

The most hope-giving and inspirational experience of our Thailand journey, was the week we spent high up in the mountains, where northern thailand meets Burma. When doing research on anti-human trafficking NGOs during my year of preparation leading up to our trip, I was struck by the artful and imaginative website of the Mirror Foundation. It stood out to me as an organization that, very grassroots and holistically, lived and worked among the hill tribe people they are advocating for. I was pleased to later learn that most of their prominent roles are filled by hilltribe people and Thais, rather then imported western foreigners like many of the other anti-trafficking organizations in Thailand. Then when I found out that Heidi Tungseth from Solomon’s Porch was considering spending time with them as well, my mind was made up that Mirror was indeed the right group with which to spend my energy on this trip.

I’m not sure how the name “Mirror Foundation” was chosen, or what it signified to the students and artists who initiated it in 1991, but in my mind it represents a mirror that reflects back to the tribal people of the Mae Yao region, the unique beauty of their culture and people. A mirror to inspire these proud and independent people to continue to look inward- inside their rich heritage, rather than giving in to the increasing pressure to look outward toward mainstream Thai culture.
The prospect of keeping alive each tribe’s distinct cultural traditions, livelihood, and language, is looking less and less optimistic, as tribes are forced by the Thai government to relocate down into the cities from high up in their beloved mountain dwellings.

But the most critical issue facing displaced hilltribe people, is that increasing poverty and vulnerability is causing a rapid increase in their women and children being trafficked into the big cities and sold for prostitution. Mirror Foundation has made a bold choice to do the most difficult but most effective kind of anti-trafficking work. They have chosen to live and work intimately with the hilltribe people, locating their headquarters among their villages and sharing day to day life with them. In this way, Mirror has grown to understand the intricacies of tribal life and what role they can play in preventing the villages’ young girls from straying away from the life they know and becoming prey to traffickers.

Butterflies bounced and jostled in my stomache as an open-backed songtaew transported us from the Chiang Rai bus station, up a steep mountain path towards the Mirror community. It thumped over rocks the size of coconuts, and swerved threateningly around sharp curves. I was nervous, feeling intimidated by the unknown, and very much aware of the dozens of hilltribe faces gawking at us as we rumbled past their roadside markets and houses. Trying to keep our gigantic 6 month-suitcases, which were large enough to stow a small human body or two, from sliding uncontrollably towards the open back of the truck did nothing to calm my nerves.

Finally we found our way through the lush green hills and forest to the Mirror grounds, and pulled up to her main “office,” a small, cozy bamboo hut on stilts. Friendly faces, mostly Japanese, Thai, and Hilltribe (plus one awesome American named Alex) greeted us. Along with one, very frantic, intimidating woman called P. Aye.

The Mirror Foundation is actually a community of students, artists, and activists who live together in an intimate paradise of traditional hilltribe-style houses tucked into wooded groves and bamboo. Feels more like a peaceful commune than an organization of human-rights activists. But, boy do they keep busy, as we soon found out, with dozens of projects and a constant stream of new ideas to improve the lives of their neighbors. We wandered around the grounds where we discovered a small clay shop where hilltribe women make little clay birds and whistles to sell. There is a music studio for recording traditional hilltribe music to share with the rest of the world, and a radio/tv station for broadcasting hilltribe-pertinent news and information to the surrounding villages. There is a community kitchen and outdoors dining platform where all the volunteers cook and eat meals together, and where they compost their leftover food for gardening usage.

Right away we felt at home and at peace, with the hard-working but easy-going, environmentally-conscious, genuine people that live and work at Mirror Foundation. P. Aye took some getting used to with her intensity and almost bossy-ness, but I quickly saw that her drive and passion, coupled with task and detail-orientation are a huge part of what keeps Mirror so successful in accomplishing their dreams. These people are seriously some of the most hard-working activists I’ve met. They will the change they want to happen, with every activity of each day. On an average day with Mirror, we:

- mixed buckets of concrete to build a students house
- helped design a logo for their new eco-friendly hemp bag
- taught an English lesson to the hilltribe guides
- had a Thai lesson
- cooked a meal together
and met together to discuss the multitude of other projects that were being worked on in the community.

In addition to all the business of our days there, a thick solemnity and despair hung in the air as people frantically sent emails, made phone calls, and discussed arrangements to try and help their Burmese neighbors just over the mountains, who had been struck and shattered by cyclone Nargis just days earlier.

...story to be continued ;)