Paper short abstract:

The history of the Tai Wat of Laos is intrinsically linked to their mobility from Vietnam to Hua Phan, and then on to Vientiane. I will analyze how they have developed agency in contexts of migration and in relation to state powers; and how visual anthropology can capture this history of moving.

Paper long abstract:

Tai Wat are, in Laos, a small population in the North-East province of Hua Phan where they have settled from neighbouring Vietnam. A first wave fled Chinese warlords in the 19th century, and a second left the Vietnamese homeland during the first Indochina War. Their settlement in Hua Phan pushed away some other groups, in a domino effect. Presently, many Tai Wat villagers, especially the youth, leave the mountains to settle in the plain of the Mekong River, in multiethnic villages or in the national capital, Vientiane. Their history is thus intrinsically linked to mobility, and their ethnonym supposedly refers to their unsettledness. The presentation will discuss how these successive displacements have been articulated in different ways to state powers; how Tai Wat have developed agency and specific strategies in contexts of migration, linked to an ethos of pioneers; and how visual anthropology can capture this long history of moving.