Pei-Lin Yu of the Department of Anthropology at Boise State and Thanik Lertcharnrit in Ratchaburi and Lopburi, western Thailand, are working together on a project titled “Inclusive and Sustainable Cultural Heritage Tourism in Thailand” in which they interview personnel from archaeological museums and traditional Thai puppetry schools to learn how Covid-19 created challenges and opportunities for inclusion and sustainability of cultural heritage tourism. Silpakorn University, Bangkok funds this project.
Yu also presented a paper at the 22nd Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association in Chiang Mai, Thailand, titled “Communicating Cultural Heritage Values and Empowering Source Communities by Redefining Museum Objects in North America and Taiwan,” co-authored by Chia-yu Hu, Museum of Anthropology, National Taiwan University, Taipei. The paper describes creative, indigenous-based techniques for repatriation of ancient human remains and funerary objects: including an event where a museum “married” into a tribal clan to act as a steward for a sacred object. The Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, Fulbright Taiwan, funded the work to support the publication.