Courtney Katherine Work

Intangible heritage links the knowledge and practices of traditionally colonized and marginalized people to an internationally recognized object—Heritage. Using this frame, our long-term collaborations with the Kuy Indigenous people living in and around the Prey Lang Forest in Cambodia forged mutually productive collaborations with national actors. Kuy heritage in the Prey Lang Forest is embedded in the deep history of Cambodia’s ancient empire, whose earliest temples were swallowed by the forest but remained alive in Kuy stories and practices. Archeologists at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts are expanding their own knowledge of these sites through Kuy stories and are also training local actors in site mapping techniques. At the same time, agro-scientists at the National University of Battambang are learning to forage for wild foods with Kuy researchers and are teaching the Kuy propagation techniques to preserve their nutritious medicinal and food plants close to their villages even as the forest disappears. Together they all hope to increase forest health, to expand the conservation possibilities of this still vital forest, and to create new knowledge together and perhaps forge new relations between forests, history, and people.