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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Japanese Sugar Plantation Laborers
Japanese sugar plantation laborers photographed in 1890 in Kaʻū, Hawai‘i; they faced harsh working and living conditions.
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Women Sugar Plantation Workers on Kaua‘i
Women sugar plantation workers on the island of Kaua‘i. Women received less pay than men for performing the same work.
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National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) March
In 2017, The New Yorker published a profile about care workers in New York City, focusing on their activism in marching with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) in Washington, DC. The NDWA is an example of a worker center that helps defend the rights of non-unionized workers.
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Eun Sun Choi Profile
Profile of Eun Sun Choi, a Korean restaurant worker from the Korean Immigrant Workers Association (KIWA).
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25th Anniversary of Thai Worker Trafficking
From 2020, ABC7 reported on the then 25th year anniversary of the shocking discovery of trafficked Thai workers, who were found in El Monte, California.
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1982 New York City Chinatown Garment Workers Strike
In 1982, twenty thousand garment workers in New York City, consisting mostly of Chinese women, demanded better working conditions and wages.
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Larry Itliong and Cesar Chavez
Larry Itliong (right) and Cesar Chavez (left) in front of NFWA headquarters on July 28, 1967.
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Workers Unload Beets
Workers unload beets from wagons at a factory in Oxnard, California. The Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA), formed in 1903, united both Japanese and Mexican sugar beet thinners to organize together for better work protections.
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Punjabi Farm Laborers
Punjabi farm laborers from South Asia work the land on San Joaquin Valley Island, California, in 1909.
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A Shoal of Sperm Whale off the Island of Hawai‘i
An 1833 painting of whale hunting off the coast of Hawai‘i. Such labor was often done by Asians and Native Hawaiians.
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Hawai‘i Annexation
US Marines were present at the Hawaiian annexation ceremonies on August 12, 1898. The annexation had strategic military and economic purposes.
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Hawai‘i Sugar Laborers
Laborers in Hawai‘i used mules to carry sugar cane, circa 1900.
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Noy Thrupkaew’s TED Talk on Trafficking
Excerpt of a TED Talk by journalist Noy Thrupkaew, dispelling the common misconceptions about human trafficking. TED Talk courtesy of TED Conferences LLC.
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2023 Report on Indian Workers Who Were Trafficked
NPR in January 2023 reported on the outcomes of Indian workers who were exploited in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2006 and trafficked for work by Signal International.
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Asian American Workers Rising
Asian American Workers Rising celebrates the first thirty years of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), the first national Asian American and Pacific Islander worker organization within the US labor movement.
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APALA Members Visit U.S.-Mexico Border
APALA members visit the border wall that was erected inside Friendship Park, a binational park on the US-Mexico border in the San Diego-Tijuana region.
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1992 APALA Founding Convention Video
APALA members and supporters march in Washington, DC, on May 1, 1992, to protest the police acquittal in the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, California. This clip highlights APALA’s social unionism organizing values, in that labor issues are interconnected to racial justice issues.
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Labor Action By Demands
Details on the large number of work stoppages that took place in 2021.
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The 20 Fastest Growing + Declining Jobs Over the Next Decade
In 2020, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics published the twenty fastest growing and declining jobs in the next decade. This infographic from Visual Capitalist illustrates the effects of globalization, automation, and outsourcing.
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Organizing Nail Salon Workers
Adhikaar, a New York based worker and community center that organizes the Nepali-speaking immigrant and refugee community, focuses on the significant number of Nepali nail salon workers, all who lack labor protections and rights.
