Resource information
Since late 2011, I have made contacted
with Karen refugee communities in two geographic locations –one on the Thai-Burma border and one in Melbourne, Australia, which has provided me
opportunities to observe and participate in a number of activities
organized by those
displaced
residents. During
my
three-year engagement,
I have
come across
many Karen
refugees
who
have
enthusiastically taken part in the production as well as circulation and consumption of Karen pop
music, especially in the form
of music CDs or DVDs and
audio and video files
shared through online
media
platforms
such as YouTube.
Some explain that
music offers them opportunities to enjoy
themselves and to ‘hang out’ with like-minded
fellow
Karen. Moreover,
I have found that
music
involvement
helps some Karen individuals to cope with and to make sense of situations of
displacement, oppression and alienation. Notably, the sentimental charge of song lyrics and
melodies as well as the visual representations in music videos
become
a
source of a sense of Karen
identity and solidarity,
and
thereby
make
it possible for the producers as well as their
audiences
to
maintain connections with their counterparts in different countries.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-26 July 2015.
