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2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

6. Beyond Entrepreneurship: The Iu Mien’s Silver Craft Activism in Thailand

Author : Urai Yangcheepsutjarit

Published in: Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter argues that Indigenous entrepreneurship can be viewed as a decolonial practice undertaken by Indigenous peoples to contest discrimination and other forms of oppression. This proposition is grounded in this research that concerns the activism of the Southeast Asian Indigenous group of the Iu Mien or Yao, who utilise their family-owned silver crafts businesses as a gentle form of struggle against official Thai hegemonic discourses, as well as to support their livelihoods. These Indigenous entrepreneurs are not merely economic agents accumulating wealth, but also “craftivist” entrepreneurs who combine their traditional craftsmanship expertise with capitalist objectives such as capital accumulation, market competition, and private property to empower themselves and reshape their collective identity to contest the state’s hegemonic discourse that continues to marginalise them today. The study draws on extensive fieldwork conducted between 2020 and 2023, which involved semi-structured interviews and participant observation throughout the course of the fieldwork.

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“Yao” is an exonym used in the Chinese language when referring to the four groups of the Yao people, who call themselves “Mien”, “Kim Mun”, “Byau Min”, and “Yau Min” (Pourret, 2002). Therefore, the Iu Mien will also sometimes refer to themselves as Yao. However, this study uses the term “Iu Mien” instead as it is the autonym preferred by them.

Especially the right to land and other national resources (Witthayapak & Baird, 2018).

It is of the opinion of the author that the Indigenous people’s struggle in Thailand does not aim for self-determination nor self-governance such as what is found in the European colonial context, but rather for equal rights and dignity alongside the Thai ethnic majority.

This specific term is coined by Betsy Greer in 2003 (Fitzpatrick, 2018, p. 3).

Having experienced similar conditions during the Cold War, a few Iu Mien families from Xayaburi, Laos escaped to Thailand in 1972 (three years before the victory of the Pathed Lao in 1975) and sought refuge in Huay Sanoa Village.

The figure “92.5” indicates the purity of sterling silver used in making a product, meaning that a product is constituted of 92.5% silver and 7.5% alloy, the global standard of any silver commodity.

The five Iu Mien silversmiths were all men and close relatives; namely Kamol Seatern, Chantong Seatern, Banthoeng Seatern, and Laopa Seatern (Doi Silver, 2016).

Laopha is deaf while Pichai was handicapped and passed away a few years ago (W. Seatern, personal communication, November 10, 2022).

These silverware and ingots were of very high quality, thus refugees carried them while escaping from Laos to Thailand.

The Golden Jubilee Royal Goldsmith college is located in Bangkok and was set up by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn in the 1980s for the preservation of crafts, especially gold and silver crafts, as well as to enhance their commodification.

This programme becomes free for students because all expenses are covered by Doi Silver, this includes students’ fees, teachers’ salaries, and extracurricular activities that normally students need to pay for themselves. This is with the hope that after graduation these students will work for the company.

Those firms located nearby and within Hauy Sanao community are Banthoeng Silver, Ekkapat Silver, and Namchai Silver, while Doi Silver and Nanthiya Silver are located in Pua District. Those others that are located within the heart of Nan Province are Phukha Silver, Sakul Ngoen (formally known as Surachai Silver), Prasarn Silver, Pip Silver, Huern Ngoen, and Lai Ngoen Ngam.

There are three firms that Doi Silver consistently trades their silver crafts with: Scott Kay, Royal Chain, and Keith & Jack.

The novel is titled “Reudu Dao”

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A screenshot of a text in a foreign language.

, literally meaning “Season of Star” in English.

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Title: Beyond Entrepreneurship: The Iu Mien’s Silver Craft Activism in Thailand
Author: Urai Yangcheepsutjarit
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-54456-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-54457-6

Copyright Year: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54457-6_6