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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Image
Maya as a young girl. climbing a tree.
Maya as a young girl. This photograph captures Maya’s love of the surrounding community in which she grew up. While waiting for her mother to finish her work each day, Maya would explore nearby fields and climb trees. This picture from 1978 likely was photographed by Maya’s mother.
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Video
A variety of sights and sounds in Yogyakarta.
Watch Maya recall the rich variety of sights and sounds she experienced as a child growing up in Yogyakarta.
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Prambanan, 1972
Visit to Prambanan, 1972. (Left to right) Barack, Ann, Maya’s grandmother Djoeminah whom Maya knew as Eyang, Maya, and Janah.
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Image
Kraton in Yogyakarta
When Maya was growing up, her family would also visit the Kraton in Yogyakarta, an important site of culture in the city.
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Street market in Yogyakarta
A bustling street in Yogyakarta (photo from the 1980s). Here, a customer is conversing with a street vendor, whose wares are spread out on the street. Maya has many memories of living in Yogyakarta as a child with her extended family, and was exposed to the diverse arts and cultures of Yogyakarta, as well as the surrounding village economies.
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Borobudur, an ancient Buddhist temple
Borobudur, an ancient Buddhist temple, is located in the same region as Yogyakarta. Maya visited this temple as a child. As a young adult, she worked as a guide to sites in Indonesia like Borobudur and many others. Maya gained great appreciation for the possibilities of coexistence of diverse cultures and religions through her background in Indonesia.
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Image
Maya as a young child
Ann married Lolo in 1965 and moved to Indonesia, accompanied by her son Barack. This photograph, taken in Jakarta in 1971, depicts Maya as a young child, and captures her sassy personality as a toddler. This picture likely was taken by her mother.
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Video
On her mother’s integration into Indonesian life
Watch as Maya recounts why her parents relocated to Indonesia, and how her mother integrated into her new life there.
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Ann and Lolo’s first Christmas
Ann and Lolo during their first Christmas together in Hawaiʻi, 1963 or 1964.
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Maya with her father
Maya with her father, Lolo, in Jakarta, 1972.
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Maya Soetoro and Family
Maya grew up in Indonesia, although her family also spent time in Hawaiʻi. From left to right: Maya’s maternal grandfather Stanley Dunham, her mother Ann, Maya, and her brother Barack, in Hawaiʻi (early 1970s).
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Image
Lolo Soetoro
Lolo, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi , ca. 1960s. Lolo studied geography as a graduate student fellow at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaiʻi.
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Video
Maya describes her parents
Maya describes her parents, where they each came from, and how they met.
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Image
Indonesian float, 2013 Rose Parade
Southern California is a vital center for Indonesian American community formation and has the largest Indonesian American population in the country. Pictured here is an Indonesian float as part of the 2013 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
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Video
Cultural tensions during the Cold War.
Watch as Maya talks about cultural tensions during the Cold War.
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1963 gathering in Pasadena, CA
At a time when many Asians were still excluded from migrating to the United States, Indonesians of Dutch ancestry were able to enter via the Netherlands through refugee legislation. The largest community center—De Soos, the Indo Community Center—was in Southern California. This picture depicts a 1963 gathering in Pasadena.
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Photo of Roden Kadir
Indonesian students continued to study in the United States through the rest of the twentieth century. In this World War II-era photograph, Roden Kadir is making a presentation in Washington, DC, to a gathering of international students.
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Maritime workers
Here, two maritime workers pose for a photograph. Images like this challenge us to consider what kinds of lives they might have led upon the ship as laborers, as well
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Devi Dja, Indonesian dancer and actress
Devi Dja was a dancer and actress trained in Indonesia who migrated to the United States during World War II. Dja became a US citizen in 1951 through marriage and eventually settled in California. She supported merchant seamen during Indonesia’s battle for independence from the Dutch.
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Busy trade at Jakarta
The United States remained interested in Indonesia throughout the twentieth century. This image depicting the busy trade at Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia in Java then known during Dutch colonialism as Batavia, illustrates Indonesia’s importance in terms of global trade.
