This creative research took place among the Long-Neck Kayan people in Huay Pu Keng Village, Northern Thailand. The Kayan, originally from Myanmar, sought refuge in Thailand due to conflict following Myanmar’s independence. For generations, they have lived as stateless communities along the Thai-Myanmar border in Mae Hong Son Province, approximately a seven-hour drive from Chiang Mai City. While often referred to as “Long-Neck Karen,” they prefer to be called Kayan, a name that literally means “long neck.”​

​Traditionally, only girls born on a Wednesday under a full moon were required to wear the brass neck rings (Phone Myint Oo, Mai and Regional, 2018). However, life as refugees in Thailand has altered this practice. Agriculture alone is insufficient to sustain the Kayan economically, making tourism their primary source of income. Visitors pay an entrance fee to the village and often pay additionally to take photographs of the women wearing the iconic brass coils.

These coils serve both as a marker of beauty and a means of economic survival (Phone Myint Oo, Mai and Regional, 2018). Therefore I wasn’t sure if due to necessity of economic survival in the tourism environment more women wore the neck rings today. When I asked the Kayan women wearing the rings told me no. However they also told me that with the rings a woman is much more desirable to men as a bride. The women are facing the tourist each day making money. While waiting for tourists dressed in traditional dress she is weaving on her front porch with her weavings displayed for sale. The men come in from the fields at the end of the day and she has dinner prepared for him. I’m sure that being the “bread winner” gives the women agency but I cannot say specifically in what ways because I wasn’t able to investigate this deep enough. The women could speak some English too. The men I painted could not speak English. This must also give the women agency but again I cannot say in what ways.

Despite their cultural significance, the rings cause physical discomfort. Women wear them not only around their necks but also just below their knees. Ma Peng, a Kayan woman, shared with me that the rings around her knees cause pain every day, regardless of how many years she has worn them. While the rings appear to elongate the neck, they do not actually stretch it. Instead, the weight of the brass pushes down on the collar bones and upper body, giving the illusion of a longer neck. The permanent rings are heavy, causing friction against the skin, and over time, the neck muscles atrophy beyond repair Phone Myint Oo, Mai and Regional, Mai. (2018) .Commoditization of culture in an ethnic community : the ‘long-necked’ Kayan (Padaung) in Mae Hong Son, Thailand. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University Press.​

Before my arrival, the tourism researcher had already been visiting the village. He had established a connection with Ma Pang, a particularly entrepreneurial Kayan woman, who willingly and immediately took control of managing my work. Ma Pang had learned English from interacting with tourists, never having attended formal English classes. She sells her weavings and earns money by engaging with visitors, often posing for photographs, similar to how she initially interacted with me. However, as we worked together, our relationship evolved into a warm friendship.​

The first morning I travelled by boat across a river to reach the Kayan village I must say I was a bit stressed. I only hoped I had all the materials I needed. With no way to get anything once across the river, the Kayan village being located on the other side I did not want to waste a day. I proposed to Ma Peng to painting a series of portraits of people in the village, compensating them for their time as my model in one-hour sessions. Artists customarily pay their models. Why should this be any different here? I did not offer an amount for the hourly wage. I opened this for Ma Peng to decide. This arrangement created an intriguing economic and social dynamic: While the villager sits and is paid, a reversal of the common stereotype in which the White person is the one being paid for little physical exertion. Here, the White woman, was working intensely to create a painting of the villager. The attention of the White person and the villagers who gather around is on the villager. The Colonial stereotype is that the White person does not give intense personal attention to the ethnic villager. The local people observed me concentrating, striving to capture their likeness within the short time frame. The intense heat made me sweat, further equalizing our positions. We shared the same space, and I felt their respect as they witnessed my effort. Showing-up and working has real meaning.

​Each wooden structured home has a store front display of the women of the house’s weavings and other ethnic looking objects that are from Thailand but not originating from the Kayan village. I saw the competition between each other’s homes but I didn’t feel a malice from the women towards each other. This was demonstrated through their constant sharing and assisting to each other’s needs. While it is hot year round the homes are open air which circulates air but one can hear everything in each other homes.

The act of portraiture creates a unique relationship between artist and sitter. The artist stares, and the sitter stares back. The artist’s gaze is not casual but deliberate, scanning the face and body, tracing contours again and again (Schuster & Kelly, 2019). This way of seeing is unlike ordinary sight, it is almost tactile, akin to the way a massage therapist’s touch makes one aware of their body in a new way. Often, we did not share a common language, yet through this prolonged exchange of looking, a relationship was forged. When I have been in an ethnic community 2 weeks or a month making portraits the community of women has always embraced me into their social circle. We relate as women surviving on our own. They realize I’m single, depending upon myself and even though they are married, they often times feel as if they are depending upon themselves because of the instability of their economic situation. They know my circumstance is different from theirs, yet we have commonality. I feel strongly that if I introduced myself as having a husband who has a corporate job that supports me, they would be happy for me but it would put a barrier between us. I’m also dressed to paint and work in the heat. I think if I walked around in branded clothes it would fulfil a stereotype of Caucasian people. I remember my first visit to Indonesia in the 1980’s. I was asked with confusion, “Why aren’t you fat?” “Is your father fat?” They related fat to wealth and here I was …what? A poor White person!

Ma Pang agreed to organized the models. I paid her a fee to make us lunch on and off. Basically, Ma Pang had me paint most of her extended family, keeping the money in the family. She also had me paint the oldest woman in the village Ma Cle three times to give her a chance to make money, demonstrating her awareness of how my desire to paint can serve well as a commodity and her empathy to do what she can for others with particular needs. I found this older woman, Ma Cle very smart and entrepreneurial. When I observed a group of tourists walking through the village, Ma Cle immediately grabbed her guitar and began to play music and sing fully dressed in traditional ware with her especially long set of knee rings attracting the tourists to come to her home-front tourist stall and possibly pass over the others. The immediacy with which she prepared herself, suggests a conscious “performance” of identity tailored for the external tourist audience. One might question the authenticity of this experience but I do not. In our predominantly capitalistic world we all have our “performance” at a job or however we market our skills. She is using the tools she has available to her, her culture. This is survival in a Capitalist society. Below is a very short clip of Ma Cle’s performance for tourists. You can also get a glimpse of how she organizes her store-front home.

​I thought Ma Cle was in her eighties but although she looked quite aged she is only in her sixties. My misjudgement of her age to such a degree suggests that the physical toll of her life has affected her appearance.