"Everywhere I Go, My Body Follows"

Loa presenting her storytelling workshop

Everyone has a story. Everyone can be a storyteller. But how do we express our personal stories to others? What are our stories about?

On Saturday March 18th, CHAA advocate Loa Nieumetolu hosted a workshop at the 22nd annual Asian Pacific Islander Issues conference at UC Berkeley. The workshop worked on this idea, the idea of the personal story and how we can all express our tales, visions, identities and backgrounds.

The room of the session was packed with young people, many of them Cal students, but there were also others who ranged in age from grade school students to older adults. Loa engaged everyone in the storytelling process by asking them to think of the meaning of the quote mentioned above "Everywhere I Go, My Body Follows". Some participants felt unsure about the meaning, while others offered up deeply spiritual and philosophical views. The quote was meant to invoke different emotions, ideas and even confusion, but it showed some of the gist of storytelling, the feeling that experience and ideas can be subjective as we make stories and ideas our own.

The session continued to open people up as participants were asked about what it means to be a Pacific Islander. Questions opened up about who exemplifies a pacific islander, Samoans? Tongans? what about Filipinos? There were no answers, but self identification was seen as the most important aspect of this exercise.

As young people moved from their own identity to the meaning behind their names, to the story of their journeys or the journeys of their parents and ancestors, the room filled with the richness of the complex tapestries of immigration, relocation and assimilation. Almost every participant was an immigrant or a child of immigrant parents. Almost all had American names that they used in place of the cultural name they had at home. It was interesting to hear everyone open up about their backgrounds. The diversity and history within these young people was a poignant experience.

Vicky sharing her rhymes

In the relatively short time of 2 hours, there was an abundant amount of sharing. Vicky, who co-hosted with Loa, offered up her spoken word poetry, which conjured up the histories and struggles of her people, as well as her and her families experiences in the United States. When the session ended, there was a feeling that  everyone was a storyteller, this skill was not just relegated to a select few. Stories are the communication of experiences, both real and imagined, and our lives are filled with them. The workshop helped to tap into the surface of our stories and reveal that there is so much to share underneath.

Photographs taken and edited by S. Nadia Hussain

Into the Current: Burma's Political prisoners and Burma Human Rights Day

Burmese leader Nyunt Than, Ko Bo Kyi and Director Jeanne Marie Hallacy

The film Into the Current: Burma's Political prisoners has been making the festival rounds and has recently gone on tour within the US. The film covers the stories of Burmese political prisoners and the constant political upheaval in the country, a country that currently has the longest running civil war in the world.

cultural dancers

Ko Bo Kyi, a Burmese activist, former political prisoner and founder of the first non profit to help Burmese political prisoners and their families, figures prominently in the film. He in fact was a big part of the film, which showed the plight of prisoners and ethnic peoples who faced severe persecution from the Burmese military government.

Many of the refugees from Burma have lived the fear, uncertainty and oppression shown in the film. On March 10, the Burmese American Democratic Association, along with members of the Burmese community held a film screening of Into The Current for their Burma Human Rights Day.  The local Burmese community came out to commemorate human rights in Burma. The day featured speakers, including Ko Bo Kyi, Director Jeanne Hallacy and local Burmese leaders.

CHAA staff New Oo and Sean Kirkpatrick join the event along with community members

Though the situation in Burma is slowly moving forward with visits with the government by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the recent releases of political prisoners, including some featured in the movie.

There are still over 800 political prisoners in Burmese prisons, and continuos civil wars in different states in Burma. Efforts put forth by films such as Into the Current are helping to push the envelope forward to hope for a free Burma. 

To find out more about the film, go to http://www.intothecurrent.org/

Photos by Ko Ko Ly