This paper reports how academic knowledge based on geography can be returned to villages where intensive, long-term fieldwork by numerous researchers was conducted. An example of making a photo book and building an exhibition as an eco-museum in Dongkhuai village in Lao PDR is described. It is proposed that geography can activate villagers' recognition of the value of their indigenous knowledge systems and ways of earning a livelihood if sympathetic relationships can be developed among researchers, visitors, and villagers.