In this opening episode, we will focus on the Gabrielino-Tongva people, an Indigenous group that was displaced from the Los Angeles area. As UCLA is a land-grant institution on this land, we acknowledge the past histories of the Gabrielino-Tongva people and seek to explore different
ways the UCLA community can work together to better represent them as we take up space on their native land. This podcast also includes an interview with Dr. Mishuana Goeman to discuss UCLA’s involvement, lack thereof, and actions that can be taken moving forward. We also hear from Julia Bogany as she exemplifies Gabrielino-Tongva culture through a mural entitled “Grandmother Mural.” You can hear a full explanation of it here: https://youtu.be/vsu-cdgdyjM 

Additionally, we hear from Gabrielino-Tongva Chief Anthony “Red Blood” Morales to learn about the significance of dances and chants to their culture. Lastly, we will hear a short clip of a poem and Land Acknowledgement titled, State of Our Earth Address, by Gabrielino Tongva artists Kelly Caballero and Megan Dorame. We encourage you to watch the accompanying images and listen to the full clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ibf5NGaItM. 

If you are inspired to learn more about the Gabrielino-Tongva people, we invite you to check out these links below:
1. An Introduction to UCLA’s Indigenous Past, Present and Future (https://newsletter.alumni.ucla.edu/connect/2020/feb/tongva/default.htm?fbclid=IwAR3rJEJRhb8xwi2v0L1b7AxGtNUDV37sZRaX6LqtpkgGpEo-8h9FUFxY3oQ)
2. Mapping Indigenous LA (https://mila.ss.ucla.edu/)
3. Tongva Art and Cultural Sites, website created by Cultural Advisor and Tongva Scholar Julia Bogany (https://www.tobevisible.org/tongva-art-and-cultural-sites.html)

Tongva: People of the Earth | S3 E1

We spoke with UCLA Asian American Studies Professor Loubna Qutami about Palestinian culture and personal experiences during displacement and occupation. Our conversation explored topics of displacement, exile, militarization, and refugee experiences. This podcast episode forwards a critical refugee studies framework through its focus on displaced Palestinians and aimed to discuss their experiences beyond militarization.

The Palestinian Experience: Home and Refuge | S3 E2

This episode explores storytelling through new media in the Hmong community as an extension of oral history that facilitates new possibilities to maintain a sense of collective memory, to air secrets of a “Secret War” refugee community. In an interview with May Vang, the storyteller and host of the Hmong Story YouTube channel, we examine how neej neeg, lifestories, demonstrates what it means to be human and alive regardless of not belonging to a nation-state, regardless of citizenship, and regardless of refugee status.
Translations are provided.

Hmong Lifestories | S3 E3

This episode focuses on the collective cultural memories of the Vietnam War, its disparate narratives, and how it is remembered and discussed within the US national (narrative or identity). The Vietnam War is predominantly discussed through a US centric perspective which utterly disregards the experiences of the Vietnamese collective and simultaneously absolves the US from its contributions to the collapse of Vietnamese communities. We further hone into the disgraceful reality of the war by discussing Vietnamese refugee women, the depiction of the Vietnam war in Vietnamese film and public consciousness, how the war is commemorated, and a conversation with Mr. Huynh: someone who has personally experienced the Vietnam War.

Forgotten Narratives: Collective Memories and the Vietnam War | S3 E4

This episode explores the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center’s (SEARAC) history and involvement in the creation of the United States Refugee Act of 1980. Quyen Dinh, the executive director of SEARAC, and Catherine Ho talk about resettlement, intergenerational effects of displacement, and Southeast Asian deportations. The podcast also explores SEARAC’s interracial coalitional work, particularlly Southeast Asian and Black convivial relations. Engaging in conversations about dreaming, refugee self-determination, and the intertwined fates of our communities, this podcast also asks us to think capaciously about community engagement and responsibility.

SEARAC: Understanding our Past, Supporting our Present, and Building our Future | S3 E5

This episode focuses on mental health in Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee communities. Personal experiences from intergenerational trauma will be shared in an informal discussion between four college students. This podcast aims to connect and solidify the identities of second-generation children of refugees through open and honest conversations.

Intergenerational Differences in Mental Health among Second-Generation Children of Refugees | S3 E7

In this podcast Ghostly Hauntings of Vietnam War, I will be exploring the complex bilateral relations between South Korea and Vietnam, looking at the entanglements between American occupation, Cold War rhetoric, and gendered violence.

First, I will look at the brief history of the Korean War and why Korea took an active role during the Vietnam War as an American ally. In part two, I will explore the cultural productions of war, ghostly hauntings, and sexual violence through a popular blockbuster South Korean film “R-Point”. In part three, I will examine the narratives of Lai Daihan people, a Vietnamese word for a racially mixed person conceived from wartime sexual assault from a South Korean military father and a Vietnamese civilian woman.

Ghostly Hauntings of Vietnam War | S3 E8

In this episode, Suong and Amelia interview four descendants of refugees, who talk about what stories of the refugee experience their parents and grandparents passed on to them. The interviewees have varying family backgrounds–Cambodian, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese–and have had varying experiences learning about and coming to terms with their family heritage. This episode hopes to shed light on the complex, often ambiguous relationship between the post-generation of refugees to their parents’ and grandparents’ homeland, and what that might add to our understanding of the refugee experience.

Tongva: People of the Earth | S3 E1

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