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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Text
“Chinese Business Woman Has Made A Fortune Drying Shrimp”
Quong Wo, profiled in an 1896 article, was the only known woman owner amongst Asian-run shrimp businesses in the New Orleans area. During Reconstruction, Chinese shrimpers like Wo joined the Filipino community in establishing businesses in marshes surrounding New Orleans.
Featured in:
Asian Americans in the United States South, Module 1
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Audio
Ping Nguyen Oral History
Ping Nguyen recalls the disorientation of attending elementary school for the first time as a Vietnamese refugee in Rock Hill, South Carolina—an experience shared by many who were one of the only Asian students in schools across the US South.
Featured in:
Asian Americans in the United States South, Module 1
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Video
“Raise Up” by Terisa Siagatonu
Poet and organizer Terisa Siagatonu performs the poem “Raise Up” at the Kennedy Center, which underscores the importance and pressures Samoan parents place on their children’s education.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Video
Omai Faʻatasi: Samoa Mo Samoa
The opening of the 1978 documentary film Omai Faʻatasi: Samoa mo Samoa offers snapshots of daily life for Samoans in Los Angeles’s South Bay community, primarily Carson, in the late 1970s.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Text
Letter to U.S. Attorney General Page 2
A 1992 letter drafted by members of Congress raises the death of the Taulaulelei brothers as a civil rights issue. The signature of Eni F. H. Faleomavaega, American Sāmoa’s non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, is on the second page.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Text
Letter to U.S. Attorney General Page 1
A 1992 letter drafted by members of Congress raises the death of the Taulaulelei brothers as a civil rights issue. The signature of Eni F. H. Faleomavaega, American Sāmoa’s non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, is on the second page.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Text
“Picnic Held to Support Officer Accused in Shooting”
Los Angeles Times newspaper clipping from November 17, 1991 covers a picnic held to support Officer Skiles in the Taulaulelei case. This clipping shows the language used at the time to talk about the case, the Samoan community, and the police.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Video
My Crasy Life
In this clip from My Crasy Life, the graffiti “100 % Blood Killas” on a guardrail in American Sāmoa shows Sons of Samoa’s reach. It also shows the complex lives of its members who are also part of extended families across the diaspora.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Image
2013 Educational Attainment in the U.S. across AAPI Communities
2013 Educational Attainment in the United States across Samoan, Fijian, Chamorro, Tongan, Native Hawaiian, and other groups. (Source: AAPI Data/AANHPI Community Data Explorer)
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Image
Omai Faʻatasi Celebrating Wins
Omai Faʻatasi members celebrate a win at a men’s basketball tournament. Working with local high schools and storefronts helped keep Omai’s clients engaged in the community.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Image
Omai Faʻatasi Staff and Volunteers
Samoan American youth development group Omai Faʻatasi staff and volunteers pose outside their headquarters in Carson, California, in the 1970s.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 6
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Video
Rihanna Super Bowl 2023 Rehearsal
This clip of Samoan choreographer Parris Goebel (center, holding microphone) rehearsing her choreography for Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII halftime show illustrates another type of Samoan presence in American football.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 5
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Image
Laulauga Tausaga-Collins at the 2023 World Athletics Championships
Laulauga Tausaga-Collins wins Team USA’s first gold medal at the Women’s Discus Throw Final at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 5
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Video
“What Pacific Islanders Want You To Know”
Young Pacific people tell us “What Pacific Islanders Want You To Know,” and how stereotypes have been harmful to them.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 5
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Image
Roman Reigns and Dwayne Johnson
The Bloodline’s Roman Reigns (left) with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (right) at the 40th annual WrestleMania. Both have Samoan cultural tattoos on their arms.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 5
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Video
Family Tree of the Maivia and Anoaʻi Families
During the 2024 World Wrestling Entertainment WrestleMania XL Kickoff event, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson presents a family tree capturing the ancestry via blood oath of the Anoaʻi and Maivia families, known as “the Bloodline,” visualizing the legacy of the Samoan Dynasty in professional wrestling.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 5
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Image
Okland Salava`e and Sal Aunese
Tutuila-born Okland Salavaʻe (left) attended Colorado University with Sal Aunese (right). Salavaʻe coached Tafuna High in American Sāmoa to several championships. Aunese, who led Colorado’s resurgence in the late 1980s, died from cancer at age 21.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 5
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Image
Samoan Food Containers
This group of paintings by Tali Alisa Hafoka centers on containers, connecting different ways of presenting and serving Samoan food, between traditional and mass-produced styles. The clamshell plate (bottom right) is a common mode of food presentation at important Samoan community events.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 4
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Image
Candy Lei Painting
Tali Alisa Hafoka is an artist of mixed Samoan heritage. This painting of ʻula lole (candy leis) depicts a Samoan cultural practice in diaspora. These leis include American bills and an array of mass-produced American candies.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 4
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Image
The Boo-Ya Tribe
Six Devoux brothers from Carson, California form the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.
Featured in:
Samoans in the United States, Module 4
