Collection
Indochinese Refugees Foundation Oral Histories
The Indochinese Refugees Foundation, Inc. Oral Histories, 2016 are four recorded interviews with people who worked with Southeast Asian refugees in Lowell, Massachusetts.[1] The collection is held at the Center for Lowell History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.[1]
History
The Indochinese Refugees Foundation, Inc. was a nonprofit mutual assistance association founded in 1977. During the 1980s it served Southeast Asian refugees resettling in the greater Lowell area. Most came from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, and they had fled the effects of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge.[1] Its main services were job placement, job training and English as a Second Language courses. It also offered translators, housing placement, donation drives and support for building community.[1]
In 2016 Kale Connerty, a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, recorded four oral histories with former staff and board members of the foundation for her Honors College senior thesis. Mehmed Ali, a former staff member of the university library, assisted with some of them.[1]
Overview
The narrators are Jacqueline (Fidler) Moloney, Carol Keirstead, Elise Martin, and Hai Pho and Lan Pho, who were interviewed together.[1] They speak about themselves, the foundation, government policy, Southeast Asian refugees and Lowell.[1] Carol Keirstead talks about her work with refugees as a staff member, her work after she left the foundation, sponsoring a family and adopting a child from Cambodia.[2] Lan Pho and Hai Pho talk about establishing and supporting the foundation, and about helping refugee communities after it closed.[3]
Material coverage
The collection holds four audio compact discs and four transcripts, one recording and one transcript for each interview. The interview with Hai and Lan Pho also has an edited transcript. The material is arranged by the date of each interview.[1] The interviews took place on February 11, 2016 (Jacqueline Moloney), March 5, 2016 (Carol Keirstead), June 24, 2016 (Elise Martin) and October 5, 2016 (Lan Pho and Hai Pho).[4] The edited Pho transcript, item uml4_16.14_i002, runs to 15 pages, and the Keirstead transcript to 22 pages.[2][3]
Catalog and access
The collection identifier is UML 4, and the collection has an online finding aid.[1] The whole collection is digital, and its eight items of audio and transcripts are published on the Southeast Asian Digital Archive site.[4][5] The physical collection can also be seen at the Center for Lowell History.[5] The library makes the material available for private, educational and research use, and permission for other uses rests with the user.[1][6]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 UMass Lowell collection guide UML 4
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Carol Keirstead oral history interview transcript, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lan Pho and Hai Pho oral history interview (edited) transcript, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Southeast Asian Digital Archive, Indochinese Refugees Foundation, Inc. Oral Histories, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 UMass Lowell Library, Archival Resources at UML: Cambodian Culture
- ↑ Carol Keirstead oral history item record