Maung Day
Until You Made Us Your Problem, 2022
Mixed media on paper
37.5 x 27.5 cm
Copyright The Artist
In April 2022 – almost a year after a series of wars broke out between the Arakan Army and the Bamar Military in the area, Burmese artist Maung Day took...
In April 2022 – almost a year after a series of wars broke out between the Arakan Army and the Bamar Military in the area, Burmese artist Maung Day took a trip to Arakan Land. On this trip through Sittwe, Mrauk-U and other small Arakanese towns, he brought along a drawing book, into which he sketched out the sights of his journey. Upon returning home, he redrew many of these sketches.
Of this drawing, Maung Day writes:
Of this drawing, Maung Day writes:
"I talked to a Muslim couple and they said, among other things, that there used to be a lot of harmony and some respect between the Rohingya communities and the Arakanese in the past. I also learnt that there are Arakanese communities on the other side of the Bay of Bengal, in Bangladesh, having lived there for generations. The Muslim couple said they wanted to be left alone, they wanted to just live their lives. They said they were not a problem before but now they were made a racial problem, and a political problem, and they never felt safe."