Dak Lak Museum province’s inhabitants and of those who come to visit it. The latter will be able to discover that the objects they often viewed with some contempt as the property of mere villagers are patently and obviously beautiful. As for the villagers, the fact of being able to see their objects on display in a major museum will validate their traditions and thus strengthen their identity vis-à-vis the dominant population. I really hope that things will change. I would add one more thing, and that is that the text and signage in the museum are not just in three languages, but in four. Ede, the local population’s language, is placed on an equal footing with Vietnamese, French, and English. That choice is innovative and validating. This is the only museum in Vietnam—and probably in all of Southeast Asia—that puts a minority language at the same level as the languages of the dominant and majority populations. So in this way the museum is taking another decisive step forward on the path to the full recognition of minority populations. F.-A. N. H. G.: What are your future museum projects in Vietnam? C. H.: I prefer to speak of the short term, as it appears more certain to me. Wonderful projects are in the works for the next two- to three-year time frame which are completely Vietnamese and for the realization of which Vietnam has requested our cooperation. The first of these, which is in Ho Chi Minh City, will be to organize a modernization of the Palace of Independence, the former Palace of Reunification. Another will be the creation of a museum in Hue in two beautiful colonial houses that date from the 1930s and are situated on the banks of the Perfume River, next to the Morin Hotel. There will also be an exhibition at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnography in Hanoi of the recent gift of the magnificent photographs by Jean-Marie Duchange. These were taken between June 1952 and July 1955 of the mountain peoples of the Central Highlands. The exhibition will subsequently be shown at the Dak Lak Museum. The inauguration of these different projects will take place toward the end of 2013, as part of the Années Croisées France-Vietnam (France-Vietnam Years) events. The best ethnographic museum is in Thai Nguyen, north of Hanoi. It has an excellent collection of ethnographic material, but unfortunately it is rather poorly presented. F.-A. N. H. G.: How long has that existed? C. H.: Since the 1970s, thanks to a decision made by Ho Chi Minh. He was very interested in minorities. One mustn’t forget that he spent time among the Nung in Cao Bang province. In broader terms, it is also important to note that the Vietnamese constitution recognizes the country’s many peoples and embraces the concept of a multicultural state F.-A. N. H. G.: What are the Dak Lak Museum’s strongest points? C. H.: The Dak Lak Museum is especially interesting because it shows a large number of objects and documents associated with defined population groups and their specific regions. Few museums devote eight hundred square meters of space to a single province with a few ethnic groups and do so in such depth. It is a real innovation for the public to be able to understand the province’s history and its inhabitants, including both indigenous peoples and immigrants, as well as its biodiversity and the impact of the twentieth century wars. F.-A. N. H. G.: How did the collecting take place and what is the Dak Lak Museum’s acquisition policy? C. H.: The museum is the unification of three or four smaller museums that already existed at Buon Ma Thuot and had their own collections. Our work consisted of completing what was missing. We even commissioned the manufacture of objects in their places of origin. Though new, these works are truly authentic, which is often the case for ethnographic objects. As an example, I would cite objects associated with the buffalo sacrifice. Some of these, which are visible in photographs by Condominas, were manufactured at our request in the village where he lived while doing his research. It was, of course, the museum’s director, Mrs. Luong Thanh Son, who coordinated these collecting activities. F.-A. N. H. G.: In your opinion, what will this museum change in the Central Highlands and, more particularly, in Dak Lak province? C. H.: It is my conviction that this museum will, in time, become as important as the one in Hanoi. It will represent a necessary change of mentality, both on the part of the FIG. 19 (screened behind): Mosaic of photo portraits of Central Highlands individuals. Dak Lak Museum. Photo © France-Aimée Nguyen Huu Giao. FIGS. 20 and 21: The red earth of the Central Highlands revealed during the early phases of construction of the Dak Lak Museum, April 2008. Photo © Patrick Hoarau.
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