Report on the Completion of the Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalization Programme

The Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalization Programme was a four-year, 500,000- euro programme devised and implemented by four municipalities in Khon Kaen Province together with the College of Local Administration of Khon Kaen University in Northeast Thailand. The programme pursued five different action lines, with Ban Phai Municipality being responsible for traditionally made "ethnic" uniforms, Chum Phae Municipality for designing and installing multilingual signage, Khon Kaen Municipality for implementing the teaching of the Isan language as a subject in municipal schools, and Mueang Phon Municipality responsible for a multimedia collection of cultural performances. In effect, the programme piloted each of these four action lines in a given municipality and then sought to introduce each into the other three municipalities. The College of Local Administration was responsible for project coordination, research and visibility. The latter mainly took the forms of academic papers, research articles and newspaper columns. The principal results and outcomes of the programme included the first municipal multilingual Thai–Isan–English road signage in Northeast Thailand, the first Thai–Isan–English dictionary using a heritage script, the first Isan subject curriculum, a unique archive of Isan cultural performances, and the production of "ethnic" municipal and school uniforms.