Multi-Lingual Storytelling: Asian and Pacific Islanders speak out for justice
While community support services for survivors and witnesses of violence are widely available in the United States, specific attention to diverse cultural and linguistic needs continues to be in short supply. Asian Women’s Shelter (AWS), based in San Francisco, CA, has for more than 20 years provided survivors of violence with vital programs that address domestic violence and human trafficking. AWS works with survivors from across the Bay Area, U.S., and Pacific territories, paying particular attention to the challenges facing immigrants and refugees from West, South, Southeast, and East Asia.
Since 2006, Silence Speaks has been collaborating with AWS to integrate digital storytelling with the agency’s Multilingual Outreach Projects. We began with an orientation workshop for AWS staff, to determine appropriate methods for conducting sessions with Multilingual Language Advocates and former AWS clients from throughout the United States. For our many subsequent workshops, AWS staff coordinated special orientation meetings via teleconference and/or in person, to build relationships with storytellers, convey the value of personal storytelling, and address questions about privacy and confidentiality. We then led hands-on production workshops for women, who told stories in Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Mandarin, Mien, Thai, Urdu, and other languages. With the permission of storytellers, AWS is sharing these videos at its support group sessions and as part of trainings for advocates and members of the public, to raise awareness about issues of violence in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. View selected stories below.
