"We Always Find a Way": A Portrait of Indigenous Women's Activism and Intersectional Brilliance in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Abstract

This dissertation highlights the work of Indigenous women activists in Chiang Mai, Thailand who work transnationally in Northern Thailand and Shan State, Burma at the intersection of issues related to militarism, patriarchy, and land rights. It affirms and demonstrates that Indigenous women’s activist movements in this region of Southeast Asia are continuing to adapt and grow despite increasingly challenging conditions of authoritarianism. Using the Lawrence-Lightfoot method of portraiture, this thesis seeks to portray the multifaceted experience of Indigenous women’s lives as activists in Chiang Mai in the early twenty first century. Drawing upon community-engaged, Indigenous and feminist methods, my research here is based on individual and group interviews, a collaborative storytelling project, and participation in the work of a transnational women’s organization based in Chiang Mai. As well as considering the intersectional forms of oppression that Indigenous women in this region experience, I also draw attention to acts of intersectional brilliance, which are the strategies that women and people experiencing multiple forms of marginalization use to navigate and transform intersectional oppression. These strategies in Chiang Mai include leading educational and training programs, gaining strength from personal relationships, building transnational alliances, and learning how to quickly adapt to constantly changing political conditions.

Further, in order to show a deeper portrait of the lived experiences of this community, I also recount here some of the emotional experiences, including my own, of trauma, healing, disconnection and connection that come with activism under authoritarian conditions. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a richer understanding of Indigenous women’s leadership and activism in Asia in the current time of authoritarianism, neoliberalism and neo-colonialism.