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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.

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  • Aerial view from B-29 American bombers as they drop incendiary bombs onto the burning port city of Kobe. Clouds of smoke billow from the fires.
    Image
    American Bombs Falling on Kobe

    Taken from above on June 4, 1945, the image captures the dropping of incendiary bombs from American B-29 Superfortresses onto the burning city of Kobe, Japan.

    Featured in:
    Cambodian Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • A circular pond created by a bomb reflects the surrounding aquatic plants and sky on its surface. Palm trees dot the horizon.
    Image
    Takeo by Vandy Rattana

    Takeo (2009) by artist and photographer Vandy Rattana, who lives and works between Phnom Penh, Paris, and Taipei. His series Bomb Ponds consists of several photographs and a film documenting the aftermath of U.S. bombing in Cambodia.

    Featured in:
    Cambodian Americans, Module 1
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  • The map shows US bombing sites in Cambodia marked by red dots.
    Image
    Map of U.S. Bombings of Cambodia, 1964-1975

    This map illustrates the extent of US bombings of Cambodia from 1964 to 1975. The US dropped at least five hundred thousand tons of bombs on Cambodia. Each of the red dots in the map depicts a bombing target.

    Featured in:
    Cambodian Americans, Module 1
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  • Reamker performance in a concrete courtyard lined with trees. Dancers wear brocaded fabrics and masks and carry sticks in their raised hands.
    Image
    Reamker Performance Postcard

    This image is from a postcard whose exact date of publication is unknown, but likely circa 1904. The image depicts a Lakhon Khol, a traditional masked theater practice, and a performance of the Reamker, the Cambodian epic poem based upon the Ramayana.

    Featured in:
    Cambodian Americans, Module 1
    View multimedia
  • Drawing of two boys in shorts and t-shirts walking on a cobbled path with Angkor Wat behind them. Overgrown foliage and trees surround Angkor Wat.
    Image
    Angkor Wat Postcard

    Henri Mouhot produced several sketches of Angkor during his travels in Southeast Asia. This image of Angkor Wat, circa 1860, included local people. These local people would be removed when Mouhot’s sketches were featured in France’s Tour du Monde.

    Featured in:
    Cambodian Americans, Module 1
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  • Bayon Temple bathed in the light of the setting sun and covered in moss. Two women sit in a doorway and two men sit at the base of the stairs.
    Image
    Bayon Temple at Sunset

    Bayon Temple was built in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century by King Jayavarman VII and stands at the center of his capital, Angkor Thom, in modern day Siem Reap, Cambodia.

    Featured in:
    Cambodian Americans, Module 1
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  • Nancy Abouke, dressed in a weightlifting uniform, claps her chalk-filled hands in front of a deadlift bar. Clouds of chalk float above her hands.
    Image
    Nancy Abouke

    Nancy Abouke was one of two athletes to represent the country of Nauru in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and was ranked tenth in the world in her class.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Shot putter Valerie Adams, with a towel around her neck, waves to the audience as she holds a New Zealand flag over her head at an Olympic stadium.
    Image
    Valerie Adams

    Dame Valerie Adams is a celebrated Tongan shot putter from Aotearoa New Zealand who has won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals before retiring from competition in 2022. Pictured: Dame Valerie Adams celebrating her 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal win.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Black Ferns Sevens team pose as winners of the HSBC Paris Sevens tournament. Six women kneel in front of six others with gold medals and a trophy.
    Image
    The Black Ferns Seven

    The Black Ferns Seven, of Aotearoa New Zealand’s national women’s rugby union team, celebrate winning the 2018 France Women’s Sevens in Paris.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • Australian footballer Jordan Mailata, dressed in an Eagles jacket and cap, sits in front of a NFL microphone for a media conference.
    Image
    Jordan Mailata

    Former rugby player Jordan Mailata has played offensive tackle for the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles since 2018. His team won Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs on February 9, 2025.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Movie poster for the film Patu. A stylized film strip laid diagonally with images from anti-Apartheid protests is displayed inside the title letters.
    Text
    Patu Poster

    Patu is a documentary directed by filmmaker Merata Mita (Māori), which focuses on the anti-Apartheid protests that took place in New Zealand during a 1981 South African rugby tour.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Māori filmmaker Merata Mita, wearing a strapless dress, sits before a flatbed editing machine.
    Image
    Merata Mita

    Merata Mita (1942–2010) was the first Māori woman to write and direct a narrative feature film. In 2016, Sundance Institute created the Merata Mita Fellowship in her honor to support Indigenous women-identified artists. Pictured: Mita working on a flatbed editing machine.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Māori filmmaker Taika Waititi raises his arm to direct Chris Hemsworth, who stands beside him in his Thor costume. Crew stand behind them on set.
    Image
    Director Taika Waititi on Set

    Māori filmmaker Taika Waititi (left) directing Chris Hemsworth (right) on the set of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). In 2020, Waititi received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Actor Dwayne Johnson, dressed in a suit, vest and unbuttoned collared shirt, poses with Ata Johnson, dressed in a sparkly long sleeved dress.
    Image
    Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ata Johnson

    Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (right) is a Samoan former wrestler and was reported by business magazine, Forbes, as the highest-paid actor in the US in 2020. His mother, Ata Johnson (left), accompanies him to the 2019 Hobbs & Shaw premiere in Hollywood, California.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Merchandise listing for a Maui costume for kids. A child models the costume, which is a grass skirt and a skin-colored bodysuit showing his tattoos.
    Image
    Maui Character Costume

    While Disney’s Moana film was successful in the box office, there has been much dialogue surrounding the power and impact of storytelling, distribution, marketing, and profit, like this skin suit costume for sale.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Illustrated poster for MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty. Multiple images of the cast in costume and accompanying text promotes the movie.
    Text
    Mutiny on the Bounty Poster

    Mutiny on the Bounty has multiple film adaptations centering a story of British royal navy officers in Tahiti in the late 1700s.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 5
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  • Video
    Brianna Fruean’s UN Climate Summit Address

    Brianna Fruean from Pacific Climate Warriors (350 Pacific), spoke at the UN Climate Summit in 2021. She shared an important message to world leaders from Pacific youth: “We are not drowning, we are fighting!”

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 4
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  • Video
    Climate Activist Ursula Rakova

    In this clip, Ursula Rakova, a climate activist from Carteret Islands, shares her experiences of the ongoing impacts of climate change on Carteret Islands and its peoples.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 4
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  • Video
    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Questions Exxon Scientists

    In 2019, scientists who worked at Exxon in the 1980s testified before the US Congress Committee on Oversight & Reform. Here they respond to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s questions regarding Exxon’s knowledge of the impact of burning fossil fuels as early as the 1970s.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 4
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  • Video
    Sea Level Rise Visualization

    This 2024 video from NASA Scientific Visualization Studio tracks the average rise in global sea level from 1993-2023. In some places, such as Oceania, local sea levels are rising much faster than the global average.

    Featured in:
    Pacific Islanders, Module 4
    View multimedia
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The Asian American Studies Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and pay our respects to the honuukvetam (ancestors), ‘ahiihirom (elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.

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