Bearers of Culture at the Museum of Ethnology

After an intense week of collaborating with Vietnamese museum professionals in Hanoi, and discussing topics such as multiple narratives, defining a community-driven approach and models of engagement, I have finally had a chance to digest and reflect. Having lived in Saigon for nearly two years prior to doing my Masters, I wanted to revisit Vietnam with my dissertation in mind. I had been to some of the Hanoi museums before as a tourist, but now felt I had the chance to view them with a fresh (and hopefully more critical) perspective.

What interests me is how communities are seen by museums, strategies of representation and, consequently, how representation in museums can benefit communities. I was particularly excited to see how this was handled at the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology (VME), given that it was created to “preserve and present the cultural heritages of ethnic groups, the Government decided to establish a museum of ethnology in Hanoi.” (http://www.vme.org.vn/aboutus_history.asp). Being skeptical by nature, I am always quick to ask whether community inclusion in a museum is motivated by commercial, governmental or tourist strategies.

At the VME, Dr. Nguyen Duy Thieu said that the ethnic minorities in Vietnam are “bearers of culture” (so wonderfully translated by Le Thuan Uyen). In an age where more and more emphasis is being placed on communities as essential stakeholders in the museum, phrases like this are welcomed. In the VME, the ethnic groups are valued, and recognised as having an important place in Vietnamese cultural heritage. As Dr. Thieu stated, they bring objects to life. The Museum focuses on collaborating with some minority groups to celebrate their culture, living skills and traditions. They invite the groups to come in to renew display houses, and celebrate their culture through traditional performances, cooking and games with local Vietnamese communities.

In our workshop that day, we were asked to think about whose voices were present in the museum. After walking through the empty houses (authentic, transported from the provinces), such as the Bahnar house (pictured), a Vietnamese colleague said he felt that even though there was only the voice of the museum, present in factual labels, to him the houses were constantly alive, made so by the knowledge that they were used and visited rather than being forever empty. This week, Graeme has asked us “Can museums develop better communities?” I think that celebrating traditional culture and social inclusion in a museum environment certainly has a positive impact on communities, and the ability to define otherwise ‘museal’ or objects in a museum space. The collaborations the museum facilitates between the minority groups and local school groups also helps to engage the next generation, inspire them to learn about diverse cultures, and hopefully illustrate the importance of protecting and empowering groups that may be struggling to find a place or a voice in contemporary Vietnamese society.

There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam officially recognised by the government, 10 of which are represented in the VME outdoor space, and so there is always going to be the question of which groups to represent and collaborate with at the museum and why, considering the lack of resources to cater for 54 rich cultures. The VME attempts to include artifacts from all groups inside the museum, where the displays are ordered by ethnic-linguistic group and material culture was organised by anthropological themes (e.g. clothing, daily life, musical instruments etc. - *Picture to follow!*). The Museum chose to illustrate traditional through to contemporary life, emphasizing that objects use and traditions have changed. The space is used well, with reconstructions and video representation. Yet as with the museums we’d been to previously, the only real voice to be heard was the authoritative narrative of the museum.

At the Mother Goddess exhibition in the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, first person narratives accompanied photographs. At the VME, I think that giving voices, names and pictures to people could be the next step to empowering the ethnic minority groups within the museum. Not only might it be a positive way to interact with the communities, but this could also provide visitors with a more personal connection and a deeper understanding of these cultures, rather than potentially creating a space where visitors are on the outside looking in.

After working with the Vietnamese museum staff, it is clear that representing minority and marginalized groups can be complex, and will often depend on how a museum defines itself within society. This musing has only just scratched the surface; there is certainly scope to dig deeper to investigate the limitations of ethnic minority representation, as well as the extent to which their voice is, and can be, heard in the museum and Vietnamese society….There’s always a dissertation for that!