Heritage site
Khmer Refugee Monument
The Khmer Refugee Monument is a 2017 memorial by the artist Yary Livan in front of Lowell City Hall in Lowell, Massachusetts.[1][2] It honors Cambodians who died in the Cambodian genocide and the survivors who rebuilt their lives in Lowell.[1]
History
The first Cambodian family arrived in Lowell in 1979.[2] The Cambodian Genocide lasted from 1975 to 1979 and followed the Khmer Rouge's attempt to reorganize Cambodian society into a classless agrarian system.[3] The regime forcibly moved urban residents to rural areas, where they were compelled to perform agricultural labor.[3] Estimates of those killed range from 1.5 to 3 million, with approximately 2 million regarded as the consensus figure.[3]
Members of Lowell's Cambodian American community led a years-long effort to plan the monument and raise funds for its production and installation.[2] City councilor Rodney Elliott raised $45,000 from the Cambodian community for the work.[4] The redesign of JFK Plaza created space for the Khmer Refugee Monument alongside other memorials.[2]
The Khmer Monument was unveiled in front of Lowell City Hall on September 24, 2017. Elliott, other councilors and Mayor Ed Kennedy took part, joined by members of the Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks and monks from Glory Buddhist Temple.[1] Vanna Howard, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, read the dedication for the Cambodian Monument Committee. The committee dedicated the monument to the more than two million Cambodians who suffered or died under the regime and to its survivors.[1]
Design
It was designed by Yary Livan, a Cambodian-born Lowell artist and survivor of the Khmer Rouge period.[1][4] The monument stands seven feet (2.1 meters) tall and weighs 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms). It is made of composite concrete dyed a baked coral-crimson.[4]
Its front portrays a mother holding her baby with two children beside her.[1] Each child has one foot stepping beyond the frame of the sculpture, which Soben Pin read as one foot in America and one in the past.[4] The monument also carries an etched Bayon face and a Cambodian palmyra palm.[4] The back honors genocide survivors whose resiliency led them to find a new beginning in Lowell through tradition, perseverance, and love.[1] Bricks around the base are inlaid with the names of donors from Cambodia Town and beyond.[4]
The artist
Yary Livan is considered one of perhaps three Cambodian master ceramists to have survived the Khmer Rouge period and the only one known to be living in the United States.[2] In the United States, Livan shares his artistic knowledge with younger people through classes and apprenticeships.[2] His professional work has received honors including a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.[2] Livan's involvement with Lowell Public Schools is also an important part of his civic work.[2]
Significance
The monument aims to immortalize the tragic loss of human lives and humanity during the Cambodian Genocide and to remind the world that crimes against the people of Cambodia will never be forgotten.[1] Its figures stand for the survivors who escaped the Killing Fields and for those who died, and it is a tribute to Cambodian refugees around the world.[2] The memorial reflects the development of Lowell's Cambodian American community as part of the city's civic identity.[2]
The monument forms part of a civic group in JFK Plaza honoring Lowellians connected with Greece, Ireland, Portugal, France, and other countries.[2] Lowell has about 20,000 Cambodian immigrants, Cambodian American citizens, and members of related communities.[4] NewEngland.com calls the city's Cambodia Town home to the largest population of Cambodian immigrants and Cambodian Americans on the East Coast.[4]
Visiting
The monument occupies the grounds of JFK Plaza in front of Lowell City Hall.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Clio
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Return to Room 50, One Year Ago: Khmer Refugee Monument Dedicated - Room 50 (2018-09-24)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 College of Liberal Arts, Cambodia - Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 NewEngland.com, Welcome to Cambodia Town - A Celebration of Cambodian Culture in Lowell, Massachusetts (2020-04-06)