Search the Media Repository
Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures
History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.
Multimedia
Chapters
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Atlanta Spa Shooting Vigil
In 2022, one year after the Atlanta spa shooting, Red Canary Song organized a vigil honoring the eight lives lost during the Atlanta spa shooting. The organization created installations resembling massage stations with fruit and flower offerings.
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Miss Saigon
Premiering in 1989, the musical Miss Saigon, based on Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, depicts a tragic love story portraying the protagonist—a seventeen-year-old Vietnamese bargirl—as helpless and desperately in love. While it originally received acclaim, community groups protested its portrayal of Vietnamese women.
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Homeland Season 3 Poster
TV shows like 24 and Homeland, as well as movies like American Sniper, depict MENA women as vulnerable victims in need of American soldiers’ protection. These stories would often justify acts of violence and invasion.
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Birds of Paradise Poster
South Seas Cinema films like Bird of Paradise (1932) laid the basis for the fetishization of Asian American and Pacific Islander women. Mexican actress Dolores del Río played the female lead, Luana—a sexualized Pacific Islander.
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Detail of Mural with Polynesian Outrigger Canoe
The mural draws on the shared spirit of exploration and relationship to the stars that connects Micronesian and Nordic histories, reimagining Milan as a place where distant journeys converge and stories reconnect. This photo shows a detail of a Polynesian outrigger canoe.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Detail of Mural with Micronesian Volleyball Player
Completed in 2018, the public art project was inspired by Milan’s community ties to Micronesian and Norwegian heritages, both of which share traditions of seafaring, navigation, and boat building.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Mural of Young Micronesian Girl
A photo of “Stars Over Milan” by Goodspace Murals (Greta McLain, lead muralist) at Bergen’s Prairie Market on Main Street in Milan, Minnesota. The Micronesian population in Milan has been increasing steadily since the early 2000s, and at the 2020 census was 416.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Organizing for Better Working Conditions
Solomon Jacklick (left) is from the Marshall Islands and is a Compact of Free Association (COFA) migrant who took a leadership role to organize and fight for better working conditions for United Airlines catering department employees. Right: Enstrasio Takashy from Chuuk in the FSM, holding a plaque featuring United coworkers.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Hermana Ramarui at Festival for Pacific Arts
Poet and educator Hermana Ramarui smiles as she shares stories at the Festival of the Pacific Arts, hosted by Guåhan (Guam) in 2016.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter
Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter (1964-2019) from Chuuk State was a dedicated social justice leader for the COFA community. Pictured here (left) in Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, helping a Micronesian community, his life’s work included raising awareness about immigrant and disability rights.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Leaders from Freely Associated States
Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second from right), Belau’s President Surangel Whipps, Jr. (left), former Federated States of Micronesia’s President David Panuel (second from left), and former Marshall Islands’ President David Kabua (right) gather in Washington, DC in 2022.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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Legal Relationships Between US and Micronesian States and Territories
Map identifying the different agreements between the US and island states in Micronesia.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 5
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NOCVA Founders
In 2015, co-founders of National Organization of Chamorro Veterans in America (NOCVA), Cel Aguigui (left) and Larry Cruz (center) met with the US Congressman Gregorio “Kilili” Camacho Sablan (right), the first to represent the people of the Northern Mariana Islands in the US House of Representatives.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
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U.S. Marines from Micronesia Promoted
In 2023 at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, FSM Ambassador Akillino H. Susaia (center) attended the promotion ceremony of Staff Sergeants Steve J. Asher (left) and Jerry A. Tolenoa (right), both from Kosrae and the first from FSM to be promoted to US Marine Warrant Officers.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
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Veterans in Guam
This figure from the US Census charts the total number of veterans 18 years and over by island area in 2010. Guåhan (Guam) has the highest number in the group. Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 Island Area Census.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
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Soldiers from Guam in Afghanistan
Donovan Santos (left), around age 19, photographed on November, 16 2013 at Kandahar Airfield, Kandahar province, Afghanistan during his deployment. The two men to his right are also from Guåhan (Guam).
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
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Hearing on Guam Office of Veterans Affairs
Donovan Santos, two-year combat veteran of Afghanistan, speaks at the Joint Oversight Hearing on Guam Office of Veterans Affairs in 2024. He shares his challenging experience encountering barriers to veteran care upon returning from Afghanistan. Content warning: mention of suicide towards end of video.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
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Runit Dome Design Cross-Section
This graphic illustrating the Runit Dome design elements clearly shows that the bottom layer of the dome is not lined with concrete. The unlined base of the dome makes it porous, allowing water to enter and seep out with nuclear debris.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
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“How The U.S. Betrayed the Marshall Islands”
In 2019, The Los Angeles Times published a special reporting project, “How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster.” The title appears over the Runit Dome on Enewetak Atoll, created to contain nuclear debris and now structurally compromised.
Featured in:
Micronesians in the United States, Module 4
