Museum visitors contemplate objects reflecting the culture and traditions of people living along the Mekong River .

A mobile exhibition, Stories of the Mekong: Challenges and Dreams, at the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology aims to enhance cultural values and reflect the challenges the nations are facing in ensuring a balance between preservation of cultural identities and development.

The stories are told via a collection of 200 artefacts as well as photos and sounds, providing visitors with an insight into the lives of millions of Southeast Asian residents living along the Mekong, as well as their struggles against natural disasters and environmental pollution.

The stories focus on traditional and contemporary customs, and the life and culture of the people in the three countries where generations have relied on the legendary river for their survival.

The exhibition reveals not only diverse cultures but also dreams and challenges in the face of an evolving environmental and cultural landscape. It also aims to call upon people to preserve traditions.

Life along the Mekong River is threatened by globalisation, but it also gives hope for many young people. In this international exhibition, the voices of ordinary people in different communities are heard. These are voices of change and action, but also of tradition and learning between generations.

An idea of holding the exhibition was nurtured since 2005, according to Pham Van Duong, curator of the exhibition. Through the exhibition, values are dignified such as oral traditions, performing arts, folk knowledge, handicrafts and rituals, he said. Weekend visitors will have a chance to enjoy dishes made of rice, fish and coconut copra and milk, and take part in exchanges with students from Laos and Cambodia.

The exhibition will conclude on February 25 next year and then move on to the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, and Cambodia, Laos and Sweden until 2012.

This exhibition is a part of a cultural preservation project sponsored by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) and is being carried out by 19 museums and agencies in the countries over the past four years.

It is the result of a unique co-operation of the Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development – A programme of Museum Co-operation in Southeast Asia (MuSEA).

The MuSEA strives to make museums and cultural heritage institutions real factors in the promotion of sustainable development.

The Mekong River has been the home of cultures as old as time, a continuous source of life and legend, says Karl Magnusson, MuSEA’s manager.

“In this exhibition, you will meet a colourful diversity of voices, from the past and from today,” he says. “When we share the resources, history and heritage, we also share responsibility to build a sustainable future.”

A broad range of institutions in Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam are gathered in the co-operative effort run by the Swedish National Museums of World Culture on the initiative of SIDA. In Viet Nam, along with the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology, the Department of Cultural Heritage, Viet Nam Museum of History, and An Giang Provincial Museum also participate in this programme.

The institutions within the MuSEA programme work to reach out to under-represented groups, making culture visible and accessible as an important aspect of poverty alleviation.

MuSEA began in 2005, encompassing capacity building and research, and aims to provide tools for reaching out to communities through various training programs.

The programme rests upon the diversity of skills and experiences among its participants, and strives to increase expertise in museology, collections management and communication.

The MuSEA institutions co-operate closely with the community in the research and selection of objects, striving to promote and protect local and shared heritage. The exhibition will be brought back to the communities through documentation and educational programmes.

VNN/VNS