I
am not sure what she thought as she helped pack her bags. She
was seven years old and moving with her family from their home
in rural Louisiana in the United States to American Samoa.
Knowing her now, I think that she was probably full of
questions. And having learned a lot about her parents, both of
whom were physicians, I’m sure that they tried to answer them.
In his book, Tragedy in Paradise, Dr.
Charles Weldon says that he and his wife, Dr. Patricia McCreedy,
had decided to find challenging jobs overseas. Stale and tired
after years of general practice in “Smalltown”, U.S.A., they
thought that they would go abroad for a year or two, then return
to the U.S. and find something in a more stimulating
environment. I’m sure that none of them knew that this move
would turn into a lifetime adventure for their daughter, Rebecca
Weldon Sithiwong.
The family spent two years in American Samoa,
and the physician/parents were so pleased with their
professional successes and the way their children thrived that
they sought other, more challenging opportunities abroad. The
U.S. government offered them posts in Laos, and they took them.
For the next eleven years, Becky and her family lived in
beautiful Laos and fell in love with the country and its people.
She was 10 years old when the family arrived. She was a college
student in Pamona, California, when the country finally fell to
the Communists.
Growing up, she attended both French and Lao
schools, and learned both languages. Her parents insisted that
their children learn the language and culture of their adopted
land. She eventually was certified to teach both French and
French literature, and she did her master’s level research
primarily in French years later. She went to boarding school in
Switzerland, then on to college in both Belgium and Paris. She
and her brothers were all three in California when their parents
finally left Laos in 1974. Becky graduated from Pamona with a
degree in anthropology. But her travels and education were far
from over.
She went to work for CARE in Haiti,
organizing handicrafts cooperatives. She focused on textiles.
This was during the period after Jean-Claude Duvalier’s
installation as Haiti’s ninth president-for-life. Known as
“Baby Doc” Duvalier, he was deeply corrupt but not as brutal
at that time as his father had been. Becky lived and worked in
that environment for three years.
Then she looked at Southeast Asia again, and
went to work with the Good Shepherd Sisters at the Village
Weavers in Nong Khai. The Village Weavers is a huge cooperative
that sells an amazing collection of beautiful ethnic fabrics.
She already had expertise in textiles, and she expanded on it
during this time.
She met her husband, Chulaphan Sithiwong, who
worked for Thai Airways. They planned for his eventual
retirement, and opened the first travel agency and guesthouse in
Chiang Rai. They have three children, a girl and two boys. When
he retired, he and his family took over running the business and
Becky opened the first art gallery in Chiang Rai. It thrived
until the devaluation of the baht and the ensuing economic
crisis. With bankruptcies growing among the educated and
affluent, art did not sell. Always enterprising, Becky contacted
AUA and the organization took over the building and opened AUA,
Chiang Rai.
Becky went to work for Rai Mae Fa Luang,
first as a volunteer and then, in 1998, as Curator. She served
as cultural resource consultant to many groups. She took a
Master’s degree in Museology in Amsterdam. During her
volunteer years, she had learned a lot from the highly skilled
director. She took great pleasure in teaching others. Her
parents, after all, had spent most of their careers teaching
non-professional people and turning them into professionals. By
then, her father had retired to Chiang Rai so she was often able
to turn to him for advice. She learned to give her staff the
international framework for museums and then let them have the
leeway to work out any problems. Rai Mae Fah Luang is a working
museum. Its collections are constantly evolving. Becky thrives
in the teaching, mentoring role. In a world that often
overemphasizes advanced degrees and fails to recognize the
contributions of talented people who have been trained on the
job, she is a strong advocate for her staff.
She is a woman who is passionate about her
work. Indeed, as I try to talk about her and her own
accomplishments, she refers again and again to her staff and
theirs. She considers herself a museology ethicist, concerned
about the ethics of developing a museum in a country with
limited resources, of being entrusted with priceless religious
and other artifacts. She was not raised in a religious home, but
she was raised in one that emphasized personal and professional
ethics.
She is the consummate researcher. Rai Mae Fah
Luang will never be a static museum. Using high-tech equipment,
the staff is presently measuring heat, airflow, and humidity
inside one building. It is not an air-conditioned,
climate-controlled, high tech building, but the teak art pieces
on display appear to be in the best environment for their
preservation. On the other hand, she is proud of the fact that
they do have a high-tech, climate-controlled building that meets
international standards for the exchange of art.
She is working on a book with colleagues from other
developing nations. Their research is on sustainable museums in
developing countries. She points out that in 10 years, 80
percent of the museums in the United States will be in crisis,
not able to maintain their buildings or collections. She sadly
says that this will mean those museums will have to begin to
sell their treasures. There are over six hundred museums in
Thailand. Without an influx of resources, all are at risk. She
says that the curators must develop “a system of ethics that
makes sense in the culture in which we live.” She gives
excellent advice.
