A Testimonial

by Nephyr Jacobsen, President

Some oh, fifteen or twenty odd years ago I read a line in a book that I never forgot; it said "with cultural appropriation comes responsibility". That sentence wedged itself inside of me such that when I began to study Thai massage it was there to whisper to me and help guide my approach to the study, practice, and eventually the teaching of Traditional Thai Massage/Medicine.

With cultural appropriation comes responsibility. What does this mean? To use a local example, it means that we cannot wear turquoise silver jewelry, burn our sage smudge sticks, sit in the sweat lodge and go on the vision quest without also addressing the state of poverty, alcohol addiction and continued mistreatment by our government that the Native Americans endure. It means that we cannot take from, benefit from, grow from another culture and give nothing back.

We are like magpies, attracted to the shiny pretty pieces. We want to take them home to our nest, to collect them and enjoy them. With the healing arts we revel in the romanticization of knowledge that comes from exotic distant lands. We want the shiny pretty pieces to augment our candle lit, incense thick therapy rooms. With Thai massage we like to speak of a history, a lineage that dates back thousands of years, with roots in pre-Siam and ancient India. It's oh so deep, it's oh so beautiful. I say this with love and honesty. It really is oh so deep; it really is oh so beautiful.

But there is a less shiny reality that is married to anything that comes from the human world. No culture is perfect, no romanticized story is a complete tale. For those of us who work in the healing arts who have fallen deeply in love with Thai massage, who have made it the keystone of our healing arts practice; for those of us who benefit spiritually, physically and financially from the knowledge we gleaned from the land of smiles, there is a responsibility to look past the shiny pieces; to see the dusty bedraggled bits as well, and to give something back; for we cannot simply be takers.

Giving back comes in many forms. Traveling to Thailand, being a cultural bridge, and bringing your tourist dollars to a country whose population leans heavily on tourism for survival; this is a way of giving back. Taking it a step further, once in Thailand there are many volunteer opportunities one can seek out - from working in Burmese refuge camps, to holding babies in an orphanage, to volunteering at a monkey sanctuary. But since travel to the other side of the world is difficult for most people to do, and since even those who manage it do not tend to go again and again, I would like to talk about an organization that provides a lovely opportunity to give back to Thailand without going anywhere. And here is where my heartfelt urging toward reciprocity with Thailand turns into a heartfelt plug for Shivago.org.

Shivago.org is a non-profit started by Pierce Salguero that exists for the purpose of collecting donations for charities in Thailand, as well as for collecting donations for grants that go toward the research and preservation of Traditional Thai Medicine. I serve on the board of Shivago because I believe deeply in the importance of this organization. I am very very picky about what organizations I support, and where I put my time, and I look into everything with an inquiring and critical mind. It is clear to me that Shivago is an organization that is full of integrity, aspires toward honest and much needed goals, and does so outside of the realm of politics and individual agendas. It is my hope that I can inspire people to donate money to Shivago.org, as well as to think of wonderful projects and apply for grants. At this point Shivago is not very well known, and so the organization is thirsty for both donations and grant applicants. These are the things that will make it thrive.