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| Brocade weaving brings in an income of 2.5-3.5 million VND per month for local ethnic minority artisans in Kon Tum province. (Source: VNA) |
Kon Tum has seven local ethnic minorities: Xo Dang, Bahnar, J'Rai, Gie - Trieng, H'Re, B'Rau and Ro Mam. According to statistics from the Kon Tum Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee, currently, the seven local ethnic minorities have nine traditional occupations: brocade weaving, weaving, making rice wine, making traditional musical instruments, forging, pottery, carving statues, carving dugout canoes and making crossbows.
Although in recent years, all levels and sectors of Kon Tum province have focused on the work of preserving and developing traditional occupations, the reality shows that the majority of artisans and people who know how to do traditional occupations are old, the number of skilled workers is decreasing, and the passing on of occupations to the next generation is still limited.
Faced with that situation, Kon Tum province has implemented many solutions in the 2020-2025 term, aiming to preserve and develop traditional crafts at risk of being lost.
In February 2022, at the 6th Conference of the 16th Kon Tum Provincial Party Committee, the Kon Tum Provincial Party Committee identified many factors raising the risk of traditional crafts being lost.
In addition to the human factor, the consumption of traditional craft products faces many difficulties; the work of promoting trade and bringing traditional craft products into tourism activities is not effective; There is also lack of proper attention to investment and development of raw materials and materials for the preservation and development of traditional occupations.
Therefore, Kon Tum Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution 08-NQ/TU on preserving and promoting the value of traditional occupations of local ethnic minorities until 2025, with a vision to 2030.
The objective of the Resolution is to preserve and promote the value of traditional occupations in order to sustainably preserve the fine cultural identity of local ethnic minorities, associated with the development of tourism, job creation and income increase for people, contributing to the effective implementation of national target programs on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, building new rural areas and sustainable poverty reduction in the province.
Immediately after Kon Tum Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution 08-NQ/TU, Kon Tum Provincial People's Committee approved the Project "Preserving and promoting the value of traditional occupations of local ethnic minorities until 2025, with a vision to 2030" in the province.
Mr. Dinh Quoc Tuan, Head of Kon Tum Provincial Ethnic Committee, said that in carrying out the tasks assigned by the Provincial People's Committee, in the past nearly three years, the Provincial Ethnic Committee has carried out many contents and tasks to restore and preserve traditional occupations of local ethnic minorities such as collecting documents on legends, anecdotes and historical records associated with the formation and development of traditional craft products; reviewing and awarding titles to outstanding artisans; including some traditional occupations in extracurricular training programs at general education institutions in the province. Most practically, the Provincial Ethnic Committee has coordinated with departments and localities to organize vocational training in villages and hamlets.
To date, districts and cities have organized 24 classes to teach vocational training in villages and residential areas for the next generation, especially young people, the core group in the association groups, cooperatives and households in Kon Tum city and the districts of Dak Glei, Dak Ha, Sa Thay and Tu Mo Rong.
The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Kon Tum province has also organized 10 classes to teach traditional hand weaving in the communities of the Xo Dang and Gie-Trieng ethnic groups with a total of 300 participants.
In fact, the preservation of traditional cultural values, including both tangible and intangible values, needs to be directed towards building images and brands, helping artisans and traditional craftsmen to have income from their profession.
According to statistics from the People's Committees of districts and cities, in early 2022, the income of households doing traditional crafts is very low, about 0.5 million VND - 3.2 million VND/person/month. The number of people with income from traditional crafts is also not much, accounting for only more than 1% of the total of nearly 14,000 artisans and traditional craftsmen in the province.
One of the solutions that Kon Tum province has implemented in the past three years is to promote the application of science and technology; strengthen trade promotion, advertising, brand development and expand the market for consuming traditional craft products.
In addition, the province promotes the introduction of traditional craft products into festivals and cultural programs at all levels such as dugout canoe racing festivals, ethnic minority brocade festivals, ethnic minority gong festivals, etc.
Kon Tum province has supported the development of two traditional wine products that meet OCOP standards.
Recently, in September 2024, the Provincial Ethnic Committee registered to organize booths to introduce and promote traditional craft products of local ethnic minorities at the Industry and Trade Fair of the Central Highlands - Kon Tum region. The Department of Industry and Trade also organized a Fair to promote the consumption of products from ethnic minority and mountainous areas in Dak Ha district with a scale of 24 booths of enterprises and production cooperatives in ethnic minority areas.
The province has also supported a number of products of local ethnic minorities such as brocade weaving and rice wine to participate in the Kon Tum province e-commerce platform (http://kontumtrade.gov.vn) to introduce and promote traditional crafts of ethnic minorities. In addition, products from traditional crafts are promoted through social networks such as Zalo and Facebook.
To honor and encourage artisans and traditional craftsmen with outstanding achievements in preserving and promoting the traditional craft values of local ethnic minorities, in 2023 and 2024, the Provincial Ethnic Committee organized a Conference to honor and reward artisans and traditional craftsmen./.