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Healing War Wounds through Art
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Refugee Nation: Healing War Wounds through Art
Leilani Chan founded TeAda Productions in 1994 to provide an alternative space for artists whose visions fall outside the boundaries of traditional theatre. Over a decade later, Chan and her husband and collaborator Ova Saopeng have embarked on a movingly non-traditional project. Chan and Saopeng began developing Refugee Nation in 2005 to tell the stories of Laotian refugees who came to the United States following the Secret War in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s. Refugee Nation strives to bridge the intergenerational gap between those who experienced war and their descendents and to raise awareness about war wounds that have yet to heal, particularly the cluster bombs still in Laos.
After visiting Southeast Asia in 2002, Chan and Saopeng, who is of Laotian descent, realized that the story of Laotian refugees desperately needed to be told. The two artists decided to travel around the country, collecting oral histories, and forming the skeletal structure for their performance piece. The inaugural performance occurred in June 2007 at the National Asian American Theatre Festival in New York. Since then, Chan and Saopeng have performed nationally, holding workshops and spending time with members of Laotian communities. In Alaska, they were able to rewrite scenes in response to the community and to invite local performers to participate in the project.
Refugee Nation weaves together monologues of Laotian refugees and their descendants, connecting the narratives across generations in an effort to mend the gap that separates many refugees from their children. At one point in the performance, a Laotian war prisoner and an incarcerated gang member in the U.S. dialogue across time and space. Chan explains, "Both men found themselves in a war that wasn't necessarily their war." The gang member does not know that he isn't a U.S. citizen until he faces deportation. It is only because of his arrest that he discovers what his Laotian parents went through and realizes that his mother suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
When Chan and Saopeng realized that many Laotian refugees suffer from PTSD, they worried that Refugee Nation might aggravate traumatic memories. But after consulting mental health specialists, they found that talking about the past is the first step toward healing. Chan says, "It's not just theoretical healing. It's actual healing that comes from sharing the stories."
Chan and Saopeng partner with Legacies of War, a public interest project founded in 2004 to advocate for the removal of cluster bombs left over from the war in Laos. When people who see "Refugee Nation" ask what they can do, Chan and Saopeng point them in the direction of Legacies. Currently, Legacies of War is advocating for the U.S. Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594) which has yet to pass.
Chan notes that Refugee Nation resonates with the current U.S. involvment in Iraq, saying, "Here we are involved in another war and we're in such an anti-immigrant climate." Just like Laotian refugees, the Iraqis fleeing to the U.S. are U.S. allies. Yet they may be misconstrued as enemies and their stories are likely to be repressed. The fact that so many other communities relate to the Laotian experience, while unfortunate, makes Refugee Nation acutely relevant. The project is far from complete and, as Chan and Saopeng move on to perform in the San Francisco Bay Area, Refugee Nation will continue to change in response to the stories they enounter.
-Catherine G. Wagley
Name of Article: Healing War Wounds through Art
Name of Artist(s): Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng
Name of Registered Charity: TeAda Productions, http://www.teada.org/about-us.html
Type of art: Performance
When: 2005-Present
Where: Though based in Los Angeles, Chan and Saopeng have held workshops and collected oral histories from Laotians throughout the Unites States.
Sources: Chan, Leilani and Ova Saopeng. Interview. January 17, 2008.
TeAda Productions. http://teada.org
Legacies of War. http://www.legaciesofwar.org/
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