Stories across Generations: Burmese Americans in Western Washington

FAIN: PY-253032-17

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation (Seattle, WA 98104-2948)
Michelle Kumata (Project Director: May 2016 to November 2019)

A one-day digitization event for the public and complementary oral history workshops for youth and families. The project, focused on the Burmese-American community in Washington, would allow the community to gather, record, document and share its history. Despite the significant and growing population of Burmese Americans in Washington over the last three decades, this would be the first concerted effort for the community to record, document and share its history. The proposed events seek to bring to light the little-known histories and, by doing so, bridge generations and ethnic differences within the Burmese community to foster communication with and connect the broader public to the stories of this growing immigrant group.

The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (The Wing) will present “Stories across Generations: Burmese Americans in Western Washington.” The project will bring to light untold and little-known histories of the Burmese American community through two oral history workshops for youth and their families, leading up to a one-day digitization event. This project will provide the opportunity for the region’s Burmese American community to gather, record, document and share its history. Through family stories and cultural heritage materials that span the journey from home country to refugee camp to resettlements to newly adopted home in the U.S., the project will help to foster communication and healing within the Burmese community as well as connect the broader public to the stories of this more recent and growing refugee group.