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Kawthoolei

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Kawthoolei Photo
photo by Kristofer Dan-Bergman

"Engaging, Inspiring, Real. This documentary is stunning work."
—Yolette Garcia, KERA
Read entire review here.

In December of 2003 Outer Voices travelled to Thailand to interview Karen women refugees from Burma. We were honored to work with the Karen Women's Organization who have mounted an organized resistance against the Burmese military dictatorship as they continue to support their families and communities living in the refugee camps.

You can read more about the Karen Women’s Organization in Emily's article posted on Alternet : "Fighting for Change". The link to the piece is: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17967.

You can also read about the current situation of the Karen Refugees,
in an article written by Outer Voices production intern, Cathy Hoang, at the following link: http://inthefray.org/content/view/1819/39.

The conversations we had while we were there were like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. After hours of listening, the pieces finally fit together into a fairly comprehensive picture of the situation of the Karen refugees in Thailand: their relationship to the Burmese government, their relationship to the Thai government, and their relationship to the other ethnic groups of Burma and Thailand.

Although we left feeling we had barely scratched the surface of this story, what was clear was the parallels between similar struggles for self-governance worldwide.

The moment for this documentary is very ripe - it's very possible that international media attention can help tip the scales in the balance of power in Burma.

What remains to be seen is in what direction it will tip. If the pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi does eventually succeed, what will that mean for the ethnic minorities, particularly the Karen, who have mounted a militant resistance to the Burmese military dictatorship for over fifty years?

The vision that the Karens hold of returning to Burma is a very complex scenario. Without the ability to clarify their identity and their collective goals, for themselves and the other Burmese ethnic groups, and for the outside world, there can be little hope for success for their struggle. We will return to Thailand in the winter of 2005/06 to complete production work for this important piece. Stay tuned.

Many thanks for generous donations made on behalf of Amnesty International for underwriting of the production work and early post-production work with the Karen refugee women.

For more information about Amnesty International's crucial work to protect human rights wordwide, visit their website.

At the National Radio Project Emily Polk produced a half hour version of “Kawthoolei”, our hour-long radio documentary about Karen refugee women working for peace on the Thai/Burma border. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with this prolific radio team! The piece can be heard here.

Major underwriting for Kawthoolei from The Ford Foundation, the American Friends Service Committee Golden Gate Chapter, and Open Society Institute Southeast Asia Initiative.

"For millennia women have dedicated themselves almost exclusively to the task of nurturing, protecting and caring for the young and the old, striving for the conditions of peace that favour life as a whole. To this can be added the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who have always suffered most in situations of conflict. Now that we are gaining control of the primary historical role imposed on us of sustaining life in the context of the home and family, it is time to apply in the arena of the world the wisdom and experience thus gained in activities of peace over so many thousands of years. The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all."
—Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (from keynote address to NGO Forum on Women, Beijing, 1995)