NEW HOST ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT: THE SIAM SOCIETY

by Elliot Galvis | Thailand ‘21

Elliot Galvis is a current PiA Fellow from the Class of 2021 completing his fellowship at the Siam Society in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Siam Society is a member-based cultural organization dedicated to promoting understanding of Thai culture for a local and international audience. Its motto, “Knowledge Gives Rise to Friendship,” drives the core of its activities, including cultural performances, lectures, an academic journal, and study trips. A decade ago, the Siam Society also founded the Siamese Heritage Trust to support local communities and advocate for protecting cultural heritage sites at different levels of government in Thailand. In a city that continues to expand as rapidly as Bangkok, this work is crucial in safeguarding old neighborhoods in collaboration with the people living there.

Located in the center of Bangkok, the Siam Society operates an award-winning library and the Kamthieng House, a traditional building transported from Chiang Mai province which now serves as a museum on Lanna culture. The staff of the Siam Society are all Thai (except for myself), and while my supervisor and some colleagues speak English very well, working there has been a great opportunity to practice my Thai with native speakers.

Since 2019, the Siam Society has worked with seven other cultural heritage organizations from Southeast Asian nations to establish the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance (or SEACHA). Since I arrived in November 2021, most of my work has been dedicated with leaders from across Southeast Asia during my fellowship, and I have recently been able to meet some of them in person as COVID-19 restrictions lift in Thailand. to SEACHA’s programs pursuing its mission to promote regional government-community partnership in cultural heritage management, strengthen the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, and serve as a networking forum. SEACHA has spent the last three years coordinating activities including the “CHA-Time” monthly lecture series and a training clinic in Siak, Indonesia that coached local officials on cultural heritage management within their community. Working at SEACHA has given me the opportunity to collaborate

As part of the SEACHA secretariat, my work revolves around organizing a two-part program entitled “Cultural Wisdom for Climate Action: The Southeast Asian Contribution.” This program focuses on how practices and knowledge systems in Southeast Asia can be effective – or are counterproductive – for tackling the region’s climate crisis, including in agricultural practices, design strategies, sociopolitical traditions, and native systems of land management. We have divided this program into two parts: a capacity building workshop for young Southeast Asian leaders that took place this past August, and a conference that will feature our youth participants alongside senior cultural experts in January 2023. SEACHA’s goals with these programs are to center Southeast Asian perspectives, to foster interregional and intergenerational dialogue on the importance of cultural heritage for shaping sustainable policy, and to foster a network of young leaders who will fight to preserve local knowledge and pursue climate action going forward.

I have worked closely with my supervisor at the Siam Society to organize the workshop and conference programs at each stage, including recruitment, fundraising, and coordinating logistics for each event. Given the scope of SEACHA’s activities and its relative novelty as an organization, it can be very challenging working as part of a small team with stakeholders from eight ASEAN countries. But with that challenge has come a very rewarding experience learning more about not only Thailand, but about communities from across Southeast Asia. As I finish my post here in Bangkok, I am struck by how far the experience has taken me even with the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 over the last year. I can only imagine how it will continue to shape me from here.