Happy 29th birthday to the SatJaDham Lao Literary Project, which was one of the first efforts by Lao American and other diasporic voices to tell their own stories in their own words, on their own terms after the end of the war in 1975 (20 years later!).
On April 11th, 1995, the SatJaDham Lao literary project was born. The SatJaDham Lao Literary Project was one of the oldest continuous networks of Laotian American writers in existence. The group held 7 national conferences of Laotian writers and readers and produced five small anthologies of Lao American writings between 1995 to 2001. The group’s name came from the combination of the words “SatJa” and “Dhamma.” “Satja” means truth in Lao, and “dham” is from dhamma, the teaching of the Buddha.
Many of its founders and members have continued to write and contribute to community building through their art, education, civic service and volunteering, including with organizations such as the Lao Heritage Foundation, the Center for Lao Studies and the Laotian American National Alliance.
They produced some of the first works of Lao American voices in their own words on their own terms. I think it’s a model for many refugee and immigrant communities in diaspora in terms of best practices for finding their voices.
As young college students, it was difficult enough for many of them to adapt and adjust to so many different cultural traditions, customs, and the language of the US in the late 80s and 90s, and there was no existing funding support to edit and print things at the beginning. Taking on this task for their community was a real labor of love, with copies distributed for free to one another, however, few copies survive today in the middle of life and the circumstances particular to a refugee life. But per recent conversations, sometimes the most important thing you can do is give yourselves permission to create, to share, to not wait for some institutions or publishers to tell you “OK, now we can make some money off of you, let’s go ahead and print your books, go ahead and collect your stories.”
I hope for the next generation of immigrants and refugees from across the world they will also come to a similar realization and reach for the good tales within themselves, both their most important memories and their innermost dreams of who they have been and might yet be.
ThaoworraDome 