In the investigation of the contestation and redefinition phenomena through the memories of the Hmong, it was revealed that, after three decades of ideological conflicts and arms combat in the area of Doi Yao-Doi Phamon, there was a contestation of social memories among the ethnic group or between the ethnic group and outsiders and state officials attempting to redefine for the area.
The contestation and redefinition were a new war in an attempt to redefine the area according to one’s knowledge and understanding. Therefore, their struggle utilized new negotiation tools which were memories, experiences and knowledge. This work revealed that, although state officials participated in this contestation and redefined the Thai State as “a martyr” and peace creator to the area after defeating the Communist Party, the Hmong was labelled as a risky and dangerous group, e.g., calling the ethnic group “Red Hmong”, which degraded, discriminatedagainst and reduced the importance of the ethnic group in the area. Meanwhile, the Hmong, who fought alongside with the Thai army against the Communist, sought a common ground among themselves by collecting their comrades and those helping the Thai army in order to create a memory about the area and labelled themselves as “former residents”. Additionally, their local historical memories with their own leaders before this ideological conflict were exploited as another common ground. Aside from that, there were younger generations attempting to present their ethnicity in accordance with modern social contexts.
The Doi Yao-Doi Phamon contestation operations were expressed in the forms of activities, monuments, and historical buildings in order to commemorate past events and to pay respect to the ethnic and state actions. Nevertheless, the Hmong had reproduced their ethnic identity in the area as the former residents in order to negotiate for their dignity, rights, and access to local resources. Although this contestation was suspected, derided and looked down upon by the state and outsiders, their negotiation was further made through other channels, such as, tourism, performance, music, ethnic goods and clothes, or academic works. These entities had become a public space for the ethnic group to present their identity and history for tourists and outsiders to realize.