More than ten highland ethnic groups reside in north Thailand. These groups include
some one million people. Generally referred to as “hill tribes,” these groups have long been
perceived as primitive and dangerous others. Since the late 1950s, the Thai government
began launching development programs geared towards solving the “hill tribe problem.”
These top-down development programs have generally resulted in a situation where ethnic
highlanders have become Thai at the cost of losing their ethnic identities. In addition, many
ethnic highlanders continue to lack equal rights to citizenship, land ownership and
management, educational opportunities, and other basic infrastructures. More recently, ethnic
highlanders have developed their own grassroots movements to better address their situations
and empower themselves. Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) initiated by both
outsiders and young ethnic leaders have played an important role in the development and
advancement of these grassroots movements. In this talk, I discuss the historical development
and roles of NGOs among ethnic highlanders in north Thailand throughout the past five
decades. I argue that, in contrast to state agencies, NGOs have played crucial roles in
empowering ethnic highlanders in the country. Apart from linking up with regional and
international indigenous movements, several young highland ethnic leaders with NGO
backgrounds have recently become elected members of Thailand’s House of Representatives
where they aim to continue their efforts to bring awareness of their issues and concerns to the
general public and national policy makers.

About the speaker:
Prasit Leepreecha is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. Dr. Leepreecha's work focuses on indigenous communities in Thailand and Southeast Asia, identity, cultural change, tourism, and the impact of nationalism and globalization on ethnic minorities.