Floating market on Mekong River.

Nhan Dan Online- Contemporary and historical voices in a reflection of life along the Mekong River in nine different photo stories are now on display at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology until February 25, 2010.

‘Stories of the Mekong – Challenges and Dreams’ is a traveling exhibition in co-operation between 15 institutions in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sweden. After its opening in Hanoi on November 25, the exhibition will then be shown in An Giang province, then in Cambodia and Laos. The exhibition is displayed in two venues in each country and finally in Sweden in 2012.

The life along the Mekong River is threatened by globalisation, but it also gives hope for many young people. In this international traveling exhibition, the voices of ordinary people in different communities are heard. These are voices of change and action, but also of tradition and learning between generations. 

This exhibition is one of the results of a unique co-operation of the Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development – A programme of museum co-operation in Southeast Asia (MuSEA). The MuSEA strives to make museums and cultural heritage institutions real actors in the promotion of sustainable development. A broad range of institutions in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are gathered in a co-operation run by the Swedish National Museums of World Culture on the initiative of SIDA.

Fishing on Mekong River.

In Vietnam, along with the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, the Department of Cultural Heritage, Vietnam Museum of History, and An Giang Provincial Museum also participate in this programme.

By D.T