Coming to Vietnam has been a life-long
dream and a sensory explosion. Sights, sounds, tastes and emotions have been
stirred and filled. The experience of learning about and understanding better,
the history and culture of this fascinating country through our involvement in
the bao tang (museums) of Ha Noi, Da Nang, Hue and Hoi An, has been an
exploration in both nostalgia (as a dyed-in-the-wool socialist) and curiosity
to see how communism and the free market have collided and collaborated in
Vietnamese life and their museum culture.
The party line is certainly to
the forefront of historical presentations and yet I have noticed a personal
flavour in many of these displays, such as in the Military Museum in Ha Noi and
the War History section of the Da Nang Museum, which is moving and involving as
real people's images and stories are shown and told. Of course there are
stories that are missing - those of the defeated, the subjected, the
collaborators and the terrorised, but there is promise too in the displays and
temporary exhibitions of the Women's Museum of Ha Noi where marginalized voices
are given a chance to be heard.
It is in reaching out to
the voices of communities and individuals and giving them the space to be heard
that Vietnamese people and people everywhere can not only be included in the
life of a museum but empowered to take their share of 'the people's space', a
space which should be a reflection and mirror of the world around it in all its
myriad forms, as well as a repository of shared knowledge and wisdom and the
meanings that can be derived from the material objects of a culture.
Yet often in these
past 2 weeks I have heard that the museum should be asking the people
'what they need' and I am not sure that it as simple as that. We live
(and I include people living under a bureaucratized Communist system as
much as a capitalist one) in a top-down society in a hierarchy of economic
power where we are TOLD what we need from cradle to grave. We are told what to
think at school, how to live our lives and what to consume and, as such, what
we "need". We do not have the experience of knowing or being asked
what we truly, deeply need to be happy, fully-actualized human beings. If we
did, that could start a revolution!
Museums
therefore, being the people within them, need to work with people in their
communities in a supportive and empowering way if they want to move from a
culture of 'experts' to a culture of 'partnerships'. In order for communities
to truly 'own' their share of the museum space, they have to feel they have the
right to it.
What I have
been most inspired by during my time on the field school, has been the story of
the Vietnamese women, not just as told through the story of war heroines and
mothers sacrificing all for the 'Fatherland' or in their traditional family
roles, behind which many other stories lie.....but also as seen everyday in
their quiet strength and confidence in leadership and supportive roles in the
museum community and in their businesses on the streets and on their farms and
in government positions. And I was very impressed by the efforts of the women
at the Women's Museum in giving women voices especially through their temporary
exhibitions engaging the marginalized communities and the positive outcomes of
those exhibitions.
The
museums here are mostly underfunded and under-resourced and we cannot judge
what they are doing on privileged Western terms. They are forging their own
roles and paths and it has been wonderful to share that with them and provide
and receive "comradely" support over the last 2 weeks. I have felt
very welcomed and supported by my new Vietnamese friends. I would also like to
dedicate this blog to my best friend Sarah Kemp who passed away last week and
was a staunch feminist and supporter of women's herstories being told.
Annabella Bray
