18/05/2021
reportage "A Day In The Life Of A Red Dao Shaman Family" has been featured on Docu Magazine Vol 2, Issue 3, (Mar. 2021) ☠🥾📷
Preview it here (pages 74-83): https://www.blurb.com/b/10641415-docu-magazine
There are 54 different recognised minority groups in northern Vietnam, on the border with China, most of them concentrated in the mountainous Province of Lào Cai. This cultural richness is little known to the wider public, and doomed to be cannibalised by mass tourism combined with exceedingly difficult life conditions: poverty and illiteracy are made harsher by a series of restrictions that limit mobility and education opportunities for the local population. This travel reportage is meant to document the everyday life of a Red Dao family, turning the spotlight on a people with rich cultural traditions.
Red Dao, like many other minorities in the area, bear a sad record of exploitation. It is still difficult to reach the area, although new roads are making easier connecting Hanoi to the Province, and urbanisation is sprawling where once were farms, rice terraces, and the jungle. Sa Pa, the largest town in the area, attracts many tourists and with them several people from the poorest villages around, in search of opportunities for a better life. Exploitation is now taking the form of leisure business, which rarely brings its fruit to the locals.
