The fourth conference of the Kayan Literature and Culture Central Committee was held on December 19th and 20th in Pekon township, in the central Kayan region.

The Kayan Literature and Culture Central Committee was established at the first Kayan National Conference held in 2000 and has been working on the preservation and promotion of Kayan literature and culture for 22 years now.

Mu Margret, who was elected to the Kayan Literature and Culture Central Committee as a member of a Kayan association and a representative of the new generation of Kayan youth, promised that she would work for the advancement of Kayan literature.

“I mainly represent the new generation of Kayan youth. In the Central Committee, I will be responsible for contributing to the Kayan literature sector. Since I am a self-taught in the field of teaching aids and curriculum completion for the development of literature, I am willing to focus on those parts when I become a member of the Central Committee”, she told Kantarawaddy Times.

At the conference, Central Committee members discussed their work , amended and approved the constitution rules, elected the new Central Committee members, and discussed the next steps of the institution. Normally, the conference is held once every three years, but the last one was postponed due tocovid infections and political situation. Deputy Chairman U Khun Myo Aung said that a year later after the conference was scheduled, a five-member committee was formed to organize the conference.

“If we continue to postpone, the Central Committee will disappear. If the members no longer meet each other, the people who will protect and preserve literature and culture will not be there, so the existing committee members were convened for the first time. After that we formed a five-member Interim Committee. The five-member committee took responsibility to convene the conference as soon as possible. As we are the Kayan Literature and Culture Committee that represents the entire Kayan people, we work closely within the established framework”, he explained.

A total of about 200 people including leaders from various ethnicities and religions, representatives from Kayan organizations and local communities attended the two-day conference.