VietnameseBoatPeople.org
Preserving the personal histories of a global diaspora.
Client: Vietnameseboatpeople.org
Collaborators: Nikki Khandelwal, Samira Okudo, Abigail Stein
Timeline: 9 weeks
The Vietnamese Boat People podcast's Mission is to preserve and carry forward the stories of the Vietnamese diaspora, a generation of people that overcame life-threatening situations in search of peace, freedom, and safety, and to carry forward these stories for younger generations to be inspired by that history of resilience. Our interdisciplinary design team was asked to explore this storytelling process in search of methods for enhancing, expanding, and scaling their collection.
Research
The first step in our journey required us to understand better how these stories are currently being told. Our preliminary research methods included in-depth interviews with VBP team members, volunteers, storytellers, migration survivors, and their descendants. We also reached out to artists, community organizers, oral history experts, and mental health experts to gather multiple perspectives and add additional context. These conversations led us to several key insights which would guide our design process.
Considering the Covid-19 pandemic and a geographically dispersed team of stakeholders, we confined the majority of our outreach methods to an online space. Additional factors, including age, language barriers, technical accessibility, and willingness to engage, meant that our primary contacts within the community were members of generations 1.5 and 2.
We developed this mapping of family members’ willingness and ability to engage in order to better understand existing barriers that we might address and how to empower members of the younger generations to begin and navigate these conversations.
Our team engaged in detailed journey mapping of individual experiences, which proved invaluable in reaching key insights regarding the storytelling process and developing tools to help support and empower people to engage with these stories in a way that promotes individuality, empathy, and psychological safety. Comparing these journeys led us to explore centering our process on artifacts as a vehicle for connection and expression.
Key Insights
Connecting to a wider community encourages vulnerability allowing individual members to open up and share their stories.
The storytelling process often takes place over a number of years.
Artifacts can serve as a powerful first step to begin telling a story.
Prototyping and Testing
Proposed solutions were compared to the identified needs axis to identify the most effective opportunities for intervention for further exploration.
Many of our interview participants told us how encountering artifacts had helped them, or their parents begin to share their migration experiences. For our first functional prototype, we developed a digital artifact wall inspired by these stories. The artifact wall consisted of images, videos, and writings provided by our existing contacts. Though this initial test's content and scope were limited, participants proved to be enthusiastic collaborators in the process. A number of them shared that they were excited to continue communicating with others once they submitted their artifact and began reaching out to friends and family members to talk about their experiences.
The artifact wall served as a platform for inspiration and preservation, revealing an unexpected synergy with another of our prototype concepts: the group story exchange workshops that we were hosting in parallel. Story exchange participants reported that viewing the wall prior to the event demonstrated that everyone's artifact was different, reassuring them that it would be a space to have a conversation without being judged for what they brought to the table.
We hosted a series of digital workshops designed to explore the concept of an artifact-centered story exchange while exploring various outreach methods, including social media platforms, student newsletters, and extended personal networks. Throughout these workshops, we found that people were willing to engage with strangers when introduced to the process by a trusted connection. By anchoring their stories around a personal artifact, participants could share candidly and forge new relationships with some guests. Some participants expressed interest in remaining in touch after the conclusion of the event. Participating in these workshops helped us develop a deeper understanding of the teller's storytelling experience and the experience of collecting them.
Proposal
An artifact-centered storytelling approach that will amplify Vietnamese Boat People's voices and their lived experiences while preserving a representation of their personal and collective narrative.
Through pairing show and tell events with an engaging digital artifact wall, people will be able to engage with the artifact-centered approach as they choose. Both elements span the spectrum of those who know how to share their story and those who are just getting started, and the artifact-centered approach can grow and change with contributors. The artifact wall and show-and-tell will have a symbiotic relationship; they are two stand-alone concepts that reinforce each other by addressing distinct needs. As an exhibit, the artifact wall can provide inspiration for the show and tell events. After attending events, participants can contribute and become a part of the larger artifact wall.
Digital Artifact Wall
The Digital Artifact Wall does not require attending an event. For those who may not yet be as comfortable with the sharing process, the artifact wall provides an avenue for people to submit outside the workshop. For those who do not wish to participate in a group setting, the artifact wall can serve as a great launching point for contributing to the project as people can take as much time as they need to consider their contribution, and the submission can take many forms. As the collection grows, VBP can work to curate exhibits focused on specific timelines, artifacts, or journeys.
Artifact Show and Tell Events
Whether online or in-person, the show and tell events can provide the venue and framework to contribute for those eager to engage. When the hosts begin by explaining the purpose of the event and present their own artifacts, they establish trust and encourage reciprocal vulnerability. Event hosts will guide storytellers through the process of sharing their stories using the artifacts as an entry point for each person. Events and artifacts will be documented and incorporated into the VBP collection. Additionally, early show and tell events can be an excellent way to generate content for the digital artifact wall launch.
Outreach and Scaling
VBP should partner with organizations such as community groups, student organizations, and church groups to host artifact-centered story-sharing events. By utilizing partnerships and leveraging existing personal and professional networks, VBP can borrow existing trust while building its reputation as a safe space for sharing. People will attend if they expect to see friends or other trusted members of their organization. This initial invite can be much harder for strangers, but you can get more people in the room by utilizing existing networks. Outreach communication must include the intent to document and archive the event because transparency within outreach encourages reciprocity, establishes trust, and inspires engagement. The events can serve as powerful opportunities to encourage participants to host their own events with other community members. Tools and guides will be provided to participants, empowering them to host additional events within their communities. Through inspiring others to host and document their own events, the artifact-centered approach can be scalable and allow even more people to share their stories.