Tale of the travelling dolls

Tale of the travelling dolls

Migrant women are taking an unusual step to see the world vicariously

Photos: Pawat Laopaisarntaksin
Photos: Pawat Laopaisarntaksin

When the Empower Foundation surveyed migrant women in Chiang Rai about where they would travel if they had the chance, many of them answered that they wanted to see the ocean -- they'd never been before.

The women, either working illegally in Thailand or bound by migrant mobility restrictions, dared not leave the Mae Sai or Chiang Rai area. So the foundation came up with a novel idea: each woman would make a papier mache doll to represent herself, which would be sent on a symbolic journey on her behalf.

The surveyed women were asked their name and the most common answer was Kumjing. So the Kumjing Project was born.

"We tell them to make many dolls of a big size, one-metre tall," explains Empower Foundation director Chantawipa Apisuk. "Each of them represents each Kumjing and they have to be dressed in the ethnic clothes of their tribe. We then put the dolls on a bus and take them to the ocean. We have taken photos of all the Kumjing dolls on the beach and shown them to the real Kumjing in Chiang Rai. They all seem happy about it."

The dolls are now featured in This Is Us -- Empower Foundation's Museum of Sex Workers in Thai Society, located on the third floor of the foundation's office on Tivanon Road in Nonthaburi, not far from an MRT stop on the skytrain's newly opened Purple Line.

The museum was opened five years ago to group visits from Thailand and overseas. But as of Friday, it officially launched for the general public. Some real-life Kumjing also attended the opening ceremony.

The museum's welcoming the public in a bid to improve their understanding of local sex workers and the challenges they face.

KUMJING PROJECT

In 2010, the Empower Foundation's Chiang Rai office ran several projects to help local migrant women, and found many in border areas came from Myanmar and worked in karaoke bars, massage parlours and restaurants.

A foundation officer checked the record of their registration and found that at the small entertainment venues, up to 60 Myanmar women were registered as maids to disguise their true vocation.

In order to offer them health and sex education, the foundation staged a one-day workshop at their offices. The women became comfortable with the foundation's work and kept returning for more education classes.

The Myanmar women in sex work said they didn't like the job but it paid well enough for them to ignore the type of work they were doing.

The project focuses on career training for work outside the sex industry. Many of the members have low education levels and the workshops are held once a week.

The skills training includes artwork, from carving sculptures to sewing, as well as repairing electronic appliances. The foundation also gives them Thai-language training so they can communicate with locals or read basic Thai.

Of the 70,000 women who work in entertainment venues in the border area from Mae Sai to Tachileik in Myanmar, the foundation estimates at least 50,000 are from Myanmar.

OCEANS APART

The Kumjing dolls have been used to raise global awareness about human rights and equality issues for sex workers. Ms Chantawipa plans to take the project further.

She has started to take Kumjing dolls to many different places in Thailand. One one occasion, she put them on a train for a guided tour through Ayutthaya's old town.

When Ms Chantawipa was invited to speak about sex workers in Thailand at a conference in Singapore, she brought along one Kumjing doll with her. The doll travelled by car and passed all immigrant stops from Thailand to Malaysia and Singapore. Ms Chantawipa said she made a "passport" for the Kumjing to enter the different countries which she said was given "immigration stamps".

The travel project received worldwide media attention. Thousands of trips by Kumjing dolls have now been made to at least 40 countries around the world. Many of them have also joined an "adoption programme" where they get to remain in the countries where they travelled to.

"This is an ongoing project," said Ms Chantawipa. "We are still doing the Kumjing project today and many countries around the world seem to understand the legitimacy of sex work as a career. Thai people still think differently and Thai people are still not ready to accept them as part of society."

Hundreds of Kumjing dolls are displayed at the museum along with the stories of their travels.

ON DISPLAY

Ms Chantawipa isn't shy when it comes to promoting the Sex Workers Museum.

TRAVEL LIGHT: A suitcase containing Kumjing passports and mini models of the dolls, right.

Belying her advanced years, she jumps on a mock go-go stage inside the museum and tentatively swings her body on a silver "stripper's pole".

"This is how 100,000 of the girls make their living," says Ms Chantawipa who has been involved with sex workers for 30 years. "People think they are dirty. People stigmatise them because of HIV, but no one really cares enough to think about them as normal human beings who are part of our society."

She then jumps off the stage and slowly opens a red toolbox nearby, pulls a brassiere of the same colour out, clips it over her everyday clothes and strikes a pose.

"This is our uniform," she says as she takes Spectrum on a pre-opening tour. "Just like any other occupation, we wear this as our uniform when working.

"What I really want to see is the new generation who come to see the exhibition thinking about what they see and how they can apply that knowledge to the problem in front of them. They are living in the modern world, they should know what they want for their future."

BEYOND THE GREEN LANTERN

The museum has on display different aspects of sex work in Thai society from history to modern times.

On entering the venue, visitors are greeted with a wall of information about sex work recorded during the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767) to the early history of Bangkok.

Ayutthaya officials were licensed to run brothels for the elite, with the proceeds going into state coffers. Fees ranged from 50 satang to four baht. There were 600 women working at the establishments, and the main customers were local and foreign dignitaries, sailors and travelling merchants. Both the brothel and sex workers paid taxes, with the state generating more taxation revenue from the sex trade than gambling houses.

Later, during the reign of Rama V, according to a law passed in 1908 every brothel or Song Sopenee had to hang a green lantern at the front gate to signify the trade. The hanging of the green lantern was intended as a warning to help prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the general community.

"We didn't really have a law to ban the sex trade until 1960 when the first law was introduced to make brothels illegal," Ms Chantawipa said. "From that point until today, we are still using the same law which is old-fashioned and out of date. No one has bothered to update it to make it relevant to the current situation."

One of the more puzzling exhibits which draws attention is a boxing ring placed in the middle of the exhibition room.

Boxing gloves hang from the ropes, and a large weight is situated in the middle of the ring with the Thai word for justice on each side. A background poster shows a woman fighting obstacles sex workers face such as discrimination, and access to safety and security.

Ms Chantawipa says the ring was chosen as a visual metaphor for boxing, the most popular sport in Thailand, and symbolises sex workers' need to protect themselves from violence and exploitation by customers and law enforcement officers.

"Sex workers must learn the art of self-defence. When to take a step forward or move backward and who to hit as a target with a soft punch or a hard kick."

RESPECT AND ACCEPT

COME TOGETHER: Migrant women hold their Kumjing dolls at the Empower Maesai Centre. Many of the women work, both legally and illegally, in karaoke bars, massage parlours and restaurants. Photo: Supplied/empower foundation

For the 30 years Ms Chantawipa has been working in the field, she has devoted herself and dedicated every minute of her life to making a change. Though there's still a way to go, she believes one day Thailand will be able to accept sex workers as a part of greater society.

"I have been working on this issue with at least 14 governments, but everything remains the same like the first day I started working on this issue. Military government, appointed government or elected government, no one seems to want to help us sincerely," Ms Chantawipa explained.

"People from the older generations are narrow-minded and they tend to solve problems in an old-fashioned way, which doesn't help with what I am doing since they don't even want to try to understand the basic human rights concept of equality."

Once viewed only by UN officials, foreign government officials and students, the main reason the Empower Foundation decided to open the museum to the wider public is because she believes the younger generation can make a difference and provide the answers she has been looking for.

What Ms Chantawipa really wants is to allow the younger generation to understand more about the issue and overlook the stigma that people from older generations give to sex workers.

"If I can at least make people respect everyone equally as human beings and understand the differences between people, I think my work will finally serve its purpose," she said. n

The Sex Workers Museum is open every Wednesday to Friday from noon to 6pm, with an entrance fee of 100 baht.

ON TRACK: Kumjing dolls are modelled after the migrant women who make them. They have travelled across Thailand, including Ayutthaya, where they are pictured at the train station. Photo: Supplied/empower foundation

REDUCING STIGMA: Chantawipa Apisuk, director of the Empower Foundation, at the Sex Workers Museum. When invited to speak at different events, she often brings a Kumjing doll with her.

STAMP OF APPROVAL: Kumjing dolls bring passports to be stamped by immigration when they travel, above. Photo: CHAIYOT YONGCHAROENCHAI

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