Hmongstory Legacy partners with Fresno State to preserve history digitally

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Central Valley is location to implicit 60,000 Hmong residents, and arsenic caller generations proceed to blossom, there's a caller effort to support stories of their past alive.

Fresno State is helping sphere and marque nationalist a postulation of stories, photos, documents, and videos astir the Hmong travel from Laos to the United States.

"All Hmong refugees who came to this country, the happening they privation the astir is to reaffirm that their past has dignity and they tin hint it and thatch it and they are not forgotten," explained Lar Yang, a laminitis of the Hmongstory Legacy Project.

For implicit 3 decades, Yang has collected implicit 30,000 photographs, implicit 100 in-person interviews, declassified humanities documents, and much astir Hmong history.

Recently, they partnered with Fresno State to make a integer repository wherever countless stories volition beryllium preserved and made accessible to the public.

"What we privation collectively is for immoderate aboriginal generations, whether that beryllium 10 oregon 100. When they are acceptable to recognize and link with their individuality oregon their history, everything we would person done would person been packaged for them," said Yang.

Bao Johri, vice president for accusation exertion astatine Fresno State, says moving connected this task is idiosyncratic and reminds her of the galore stories her parent shared with her.

"My ma ever tells the communicative of however my household escaped Laos to Thailand," said Johri.

"My uncle was successful the concealed warfare truthful erstwhile I look astatine the pictures and deliberation of my mom's words of his journey, it brought backmost a batch of memories."

She believes it's important for stories that signifier the past of the Hmong assemblage to beryllium accessible to anyone and is arrogant of the concern making it happen.

The Fresno State Hmong Digital Repository is disposable present connected the room website and much contented volition beryllium added successful the coming months.

"I anticipation that this enactment volition grow beyond Fresno State due to the fact that these stories are worthy looking at, and these stories volition uplift the adjacent generations and community," said Bao.

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