DETAILS
ABOUT THE ARTISTS AND THEIR SITUATION
All of the works are from student artists at either
Huay Kaloke or Mawker Refugee Camps, where in each case
an art teacher was motivated enough to form an art group
outside of school hours for enthusiastic students. Huay
Kaloke is about 15 km north of Mae Sot town, and Mawker
about 50 km to the south, both in Tak Province. Both
house over 8000 people, and both are close to the border
with Burma. In the case of Huay Kaloke, it is less than
40 minutes walk away. All of the children belong to the
Karen ethnic minority of Burma. There are more than ten
large ethnic groups in Burma, and the Karen are but one
of these.
Most images are powerful enough to speak for
themselves. In the case of some pictures, I have provided
some additional information on what it represents. I have
kept these to a minimum. Some general themes to look for
in the illustrations are as follows:
· Food and agriculture
Coming from traditional rural economies, the children
focus on growing and reaping rice; pounding rice with
mortar and pestle; cooking over an open fire.
· Water
Most of the artists have never lived in places with
easy access to water. Carrying water is a daily chore
that takes up time and is often delegated to children. In
traditional depictions, water is carried in large bamboo
segments on people's backs. In the refugee camp scenes,
it is carried in metal drums on a strip of bamboo or wood
across the shoulder or on the head. In Mawker camp there
are water-towers, and in Huay Kaloke, wells (as
depicted).
· Refugee camp scenes
There are various scenes of camp life. Note that Huay
Kaloke has a barbed-wire - concrete fence and Mawker has
a wooden fence (as depicted).
· Homeland
Some idyllic images of the homeland that perhaps few
of these artists can remember are included. Most of these
children have grown up in refugee camps since they were
young, although some are recent arrivals.
· The destruction of Huay Kaloke
Staying in Thailand does not necessarily mean being
spared the ravages of war. On two occasions, in February
1997 and again in March 1998, Huay Kaloke camp was burnt
down. On both occasions, armed marauders from across the
border were responsible. The destruction is depicted
extensively and in a number of forms in the
paintings:
(1) The attack and burning itself.
(2) The aftermath, with refugees under small shelters
among burnt stumps of their former houses.
(3) Rebuilding.
· Burma army abuses
As noted above, many of the student artists may never
have directly experienced abuse by Burma army soldiers.
The illustrations depict events that they have more
likely heard about from others. Typical Burma army
violations of human rights depicted in their paintings
include: physical assault; villagers forced to do labour,
such as making roads and serving as porters of military
equipment in front line areas; confiscation of food
stocks and cattle.
· Education
Recently, some artists submitted illustrations for a
contest on children's rights, and many focused on the
right to education. Some of these images have captions
from the authors, which I have included here.
