
Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong
Working experience
2008-Present Cultural Consultant, Chiang Mai, Thailand
\- Historic Structure Report in cooperation with Chiang Mai University Faculty of
Architecture, Prince Mahidol Museum Project, Chiang Mai, Thailand
\- Structural services to Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park, Mae Fah Luang
Foundation, Under Royal Patronage, Chiang Rai, Thailand
\- Structural services to Wat Phra Kaew Museum, Chiang Rai, Thailand
2002-2008 Curator, Rai Mae Fah Luang, Mae Fah Luang Foundation, Chiang Rai, Thailand
1998-2000 Assistant director, Rai Mae Fah Luang, Mae Fah Luang Foundation Chiang Rai, Thailand
Education
1976 Anthropology, Pomona College, Claremont, California
2001- Master Museology, Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Background summary
Growing up in Laos I developed an interest in anthropology and material culture. After working with
handicraft cooperatives in Haiti and Thailand, I settled with my husband in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 1983,
founding Golden Triangle Tours, the first touring organization conceived and run by locally born and
raised residents.
In 1993, I established Ahimsa Gallery, the first cultural centre in Chiang Rai featuring exhibitions by local
artists, poetry readings by local writers and lectures on art and culture. While working with village
carpenters building locally inspired architecture, I served as a volunteer docent at Rai Mae Fah Luang,
Later, I supervised the development of the first museum of ethnology in the area, at which I finally
served as a curator.
The challenges of creating a professional institution based in local participation led me to follow a
master course at the Reinwardt Academy, the faculty of museology and heritage of the Amsterdam
University of the Arts. Working as a consultant I research Southeast Asian museology linking it to local
participation.
Links
Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park: masterpieces.asemus.museum/museum/detail.nhn?museumId=1113
www.maefahluang.org/rmfl
asemus.museum/museum/mae-fah-luang-foundation/
Hong Luang Saeng Kaew Museum, Wat Phra Kaew: www.watphrakaew-chiangrai.com/eng/museum.php
Convenor: Informal Northern Thai Group www.intgcm.thehostserver.com/
Publication
Weldon, R., “Transformative Museology”, Cadernos de Sociomuseologia, no. 37 (2010), 75-85
(http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/cadernosociomuseologia/article/view/1635/1301)
Working experience
2008-Present Cultural Consultant, Chiang Mai, Thailand
\- Historic Structure Report in cooperation with Chiang Mai University Faculty of
Architecture, Prince Mahidol Museum Project, Chiang Mai, Thailand
\- Structural services to Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park, Mae Fah Luang
Foundation, Under Royal Patronage, Chiang Rai, Thailand
\- Structural services to Wat Phra Kaew Museum, Chiang Rai, Thailand
2002-2008 Curator, Rai Mae Fah Luang, Mae Fah Luang Foundation, Chiang Rai, Thailand
1998-2000 Assistant director, Rai Mae Fah Luang, Mae Fah Luang Foundation Chiang Rai, Thailand
Education
1976 Anthropology, Pomona College, Claremont, California
2001- Master Museology, Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Background summary
Growing up in Laos I developed an interest in anthropology and material culture. After working with
handicraft cooperatives in Haiti and Thailand, I settled with my husband in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 1983,
founding Golden Triangle Tours, the first touring organization conceived and run by locally born and
raised residents.
In 1993, I established Ahimsa Gallery, the first cultural centre in Chiang Rai featuring exhibitions by local
artists, poetry readings by local writers and lectures on art and culture. While working with village
carpenters building locally inspired architecture, I served as a volunteer docent at Rai Mae Fah Luang,
Later, I supervised the development of the first museum of ethnology in the area, at which I finally
served as a curator.
The challenges of creating a professional institution based in local participation led me to follow a
master course at the Reinwardt Academy, the faculty of museology and heritage of the Amsterdam
University of the Arts. Working as a consultant I research Southeast Asian museology linking it to local
participation.
Links
Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park: masterpieces.asemus.museum/museum/detail.nhn?museumId=1113
www.maefahluang.org/rmfl
asemus.museum/museum/mae-fah-luang-foundation/
Hong Luang Saeng Kaew Museum, Wat Phra Kaew: www.watphrakaew-chiangrai.com/eng/museum.php
Convenor: Informal Northern Thai Group www.intgcm.thehostserver.com/
Publication
Weldon, R., “Transformative Museology”, Cadernos de Sociomuseologia, no. 37 (2010), 75-85
(http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/cadernosociomuseologia/article/view/1635/1301)
Sessions in which Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong participates
9:00
9:00
- 14.30 Thai Museology and International Standards of Heritage Management
- Participant Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong (Consultant in Museology) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Heritage Shifts in East Asia: Communication between Global Policies and Local Practices
- Conflicts may arise when international standards of museological practice are applied in heritage preservation at the local level, engendering u...
- Paper
Sessions in which Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong attends
11:30
11:30
- Public Debate: Heritage and Tourism | Débat public: Patrimoine et tourisme
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon Athanase-David (D) - DR-200
- 11:30 - 13:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- What does heritage change for tourism? | Le patrimoine, ça change quoi au tourisme? Ce débat veut interroger les r...
- Roundtable with simultaneous translation / Table ronde avec traduction simultanée

12:30
12:30
- Registration UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Main hall
- 12:30 - 17:30 | 5 hours
13:00
13:00
- Pre-Conference Tour: Le Vieux-Montréal, Quartier Bonsecours UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Registration table (meeting point)
- 13:00 - 15:00 | 2 hours
- Avant de s’appeler le Vieux-Montréal, la vieille ville était le cœur vivant de Montréal habité par l’ensemble de ses classes sociales : riches et p...
- Tour
17:00
17:00
- Opening Ceremony and Cocktail
- Signup required Concordia, Grey Nuns Motherhouse (GN) - Former Chapel
- 17:00 - 19:30 | 2 hours 30 minutes
- Welcome addresses and cocktail, followed by the Concordia Signature Event "The Garden of the Grey Nuns". As the opening ceremony and cocktail...
- Cocktail
19:30
19:30
- The Garden of the Grey Nuns / Le jardin des sœurs grises Concordia, Grey Nuns Motherhouse (GN) - GN 1210
- 19:30 - 21:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Working with archival documents and the current-day morphology of the Grey Nuns' site, Dr Cynthia Hammond, Dr Shauna Janssen, in collaboration w...
- Research-Creation
8:00
8:00
- Morning Coffee UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 8:00 - 10:00 | 2 hours
- Pause
9:00
9:00
- Keynote : What does heritage change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi? (Lucie K. Morisset)
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle Alfred-Laliberté
- 9:00 - 10:00 | 1 hour
- What if we changed our views on heritage? And if heritage has already changed? While, on the global scene, s...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

10:30
10:30
- Break | Pause UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 10:30 - 11:00 | 30 minutes
- Pause
11:00
11:00
- Religion as Heritage - Heritage as Religion? UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-M320
- 11:00 - 17:00 | 6 hours
- Since the beginning of the 19th century religious buildings and artefacts of the West have been involved in a continuous process of musealization. ...
- Regular session
13:30
13:30
- L'odyssée des mots du patrimoine UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-M260 - SALLE ANNULÉE
- 13:30 - 17:00 | 3 hours 30 minutes
- Le patrimoine recouvre des notions et des pratiques, et désigne des objets, dont « [la] perte constitue un sacrifice et [dont la] conservation s...
- Regular session
18:30
18:30
- Keynote: Is Tangible to Intangible as Formal is to Informal ? (Michael Herzfeld)
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle Alfred-Laliberté
- 18:30 - 20:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Most of what we experience as heritage emerges into conscious recognition through a complex mixture of political and ideological filters, including...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

7:00
7:00
- Morning Coffee UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 7:00 - 9:00 | 2 hours
- Pause
9:00
9:00
- Empathy and Indifference – Emotional/Affective Routes To and Away from Compassion I UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-2518
- 9:00 - 12:30 | 3 hours 30 minutes
- We would like to propose a session, building on the one we ran at the 2014 CHS conference in Canberra, on how emotion and affect feature in the fie...
- Regular session
10:30
10:30
- Break | Pause UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 10:30 - 11:00 | 30 minutes
- Pause
12:30
12:30
- Lunchboxes | Boîtes à lunch UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 12:30 - 13:30 | 1 hour
- Repas
14:00
14:00
- Keynote: Renaming, Removal, Recontextualization of Heritage: Purging History, Claiming the Present, Imagining the Future? (What Change-Role for Heritage Professionals?) (James Count Early)
- Signup required Musée des Beaux-Ars de Montréal - Cummings Auditorium
- 14:00 - 15:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- "What does heritage change?" is a multifaceted question to which the answer(s) are in primary respects related to real-life negotiations among dif...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

9:00
9:00
- Critical Heritage Theory: Foundational Cores and Innovative Edges Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 3.435
- 9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
- The field of heritage has emerged as a key site of reflection. Influenced by shifts in the academy (e.g., post-colonial, post-structural and femini...
- Regular session
9:00
9:00
- Heritage Shifts in East Asia: Communication between Global Policies and Local Practices Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB S2.401
- 9:00 - 17:00 | 8 hours
- To date, there has been much scholarly discussion and critique about how ideas and policies of "heritage" may be operating globally. There have als...
- Regular session
19:00
19:00
9:00
9:00
- Post-Conference Tour: Les églises converties de Montréal | Recycled Churches in Montreal UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Registration table (meeting point)
- 9:00 - 16:00 | 7 hours
- Tour