8 June – 16 October at the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Museum

A traveling exhibit on the world’s refugees has made its way to Honolulu. “Torn From Home: My Life as a Refuge” takes young visitors and adults on an inspiring, hands-on journey into the lives of millions of children who were forced to flee their homes in conflict regions throughout the world.

The exhibit is on a national five-year tour and will celebrate its grand opening at the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center on June 20, recognized as World Refugee Day, with vibrant cultural performances, ethnic foods and more from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The exhibit will remain in Hawaii through October 16, 2010.

“Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee” gives children and adults an opportunity to gain a firsthand look into the often challenging realities faced by refugee children and their families, and yet experience the personal triumphs of rebuilding their lives in a new land. It showcases seven exhibit areas: Home, Losing Home, Registration, Refugee Camp, Medical Clinic and Going Home.

The self-guided tour walks museum visitors through exhibit areas where they will learn about the shelter, food, medical care, schooling, and play activities of children in refugee camps. The exhibition features interactive multimedia, as well as photographs, artwork and testimonials of refugee children from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, and Afghanistan.

“By hosting this exhibit, we hope that children and adults in Hawaii become more aware of what is happening in other countries throughout the world,” says Loretta Yajima, president of the Board of Directors at the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center. “We hope that awareness will help them to develop a sense of empathy and compassion, while also exploring themes such as “What makes a home?” and “What is peace?”

The Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center has partnered with local community organizations, as well as individuals from regions including Laos, Vietnam and Burma, to recognize Hawaii’s own refugee populations. Monthly cultural events will showcase each culture through food, performances, and more.

The Center has also crafted extension exhibits specifically designed to address Hawaii’s diverse immigrant communities. Children will gain traits such as understanding the beauty of our differences by participating in various projects, such as creating a peace quilt. The Center itself has galleries of hands-on, interactive exhibits that help children learn about themselves and the world beyond our Island shores through exploration and guided self-discovery.

“Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee” was developed in partnership with Lied Discovery Children’s Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, and international aid organizations including UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Philanthropist and part-time Hawaii resident, Pam Omidyar helped conceive the exhibit and personally provided core funding. Transportation funding to Hawaii was provided by Unbound Philanthropy.

Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center | Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee Exhibit

Looking for a place to listen to radio from across southeast asia? The CSEAS staff recently discovered radiotime, a free streaming radio program online called radiotime! All the major southeast asian countries are listed, in addition to other countries across the globe. Some countries are even further categorized by locality! Check out the site and be sure to let us know what you think!

Until today, the Muslim Societies in Asia & the Pacific program (MSAP) only had a facebook presence online, so we are very excited to announce their new website: http://www.msiahawaii.com!  We hope our readers enjoy the site as much as we do!

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies would like to recognize the incredible efforts of graduate assistants, Nezia and Effendy, who were instrumental in the building of the Muslim Societies in Asia program.  The quality and success of the current MSIAP is a testament to their hard work and the CSEAS wishes them the best of luck on their future endeavors.

The First International Conference on
HUMAN RIGHTS in SOUTHEAST ASIA

Organized by the Southeast Asian Human Rights Studies Network and the Center for Human Rights Studies and Social Development (CHRSD), Mahidol University, Thailand.

14-15 October 2010
Bangkok , Thailand
www.seahrcon.org

Human rights in Southeast Asia are at a critical juncture. There are a number of positive developments in the promotion and protection of human rights, such as, the institutionalization of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), formation of national human rights commissions or institutions and the development of a dynamic human rights discourse within the region. These occur, however, alongside a significant amount of human rights violations in a wide variety of areas. There is still much work to do in the promotion and protection of human rights of ASEAN peoples.

The First International Conference on Human Rights in Southeast Asia intends to bring together academics, researchers, graduate and post-graduate students, civil society organizations and government agency representatives who work on the research and greater understanding of human rights in Southeast Asia . It seeks to explore the ways researchers and civil society have begun to make more critical contributions to deepening the understanding of human rights-based framework and actual issues through in-depth engagement with localized sites within the Southeast Asian region. Likewise, as human rights is an emerging area of study at universities and academic institutes in Southeast Asia , the conference also aims to provide a venue for the increasing body of research work being done by academics and graduate students on Southeast Asian human rights.

Possible Panel Themes will include:
1. Universality and particularity of human rights
2. Individual and collective rights
3. Gender, sexuality and women’s rights
4. Rights of vulnerable and marginalized groups
5. Peace, conflict, security and human rights
6. Challenges to human rights in Southeast Asia
7. Media, advocacy and popularization of human rights

Paper Submission Details
Those who wish to present a paper at the conference are invited to submit an abstract of 300-350 words and a short biographical paragraph of 150 words in English by 30 June 2010 to Ms. Saksinee Emasiri at seahrcon@gmail.com. Please indicate to which proposed panel you think your paper would best fall under. The full paper should be about 5,000-6,000 words.

Successful applicants will be notified by 15 July 2010. Full papers are due on 30 September 2010.

Photo taken from flickr user j l t under creative commons license

All of us at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa wish everyone a wonderful Songkran/Bpee Mai/Chol Chnam Thmey/Thingyan!

Another Celebratory Photograh of Songkran

This month, NPR Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Sullivan introduces a five-part series focusing on the Mekong River. Beginning part at the river’s source in the central highlands of China, “Sullivan journeys the length of the river and tells the story of the people who live along its banks.” This part-travelogue/part-ethnography is also available via podcast and includes interactive maps, stunning visuals, and Sullivan’s award-winning reporting. Read on for summaries of parts 2 – 4 that chronicle Sullivan’s experience through Southeast Asia; part 5 coming soon!

Part 2: Sullivan reports from east-central Myanmar’s Shan state, which borders the Mekong. It’s a remote area that, like the river itself, has an often troubling past, in a country where reporters aren’t welcome. podcast | full article

Part 3: Sullivan travels to Thailand and Laos, which are on opposite sides of the river known in their local languages as Mae Nam Khong. The two countries found themselves in different camps after the communist takeover of Laos in 1975. Now, they face different challenges. | podcast | full article

Part 4: Sullivan reports from Cambodia, where the river has been central to the lives and livelihoods of many in a country that has seen its share of conflict | podcast – coming soon | full article

Ever wonder what Southeast Asia looks like at night?  Below is a beautiful photographic depiction of this large geographical area.

International Grants for Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
McKnight Foundation
2010 – 2011

Through community building and empowerment, the McKnight Foundation’s goal is to strengthen local institutions and initiatives that sustain and improve the livelihoods of the most vulnerable people in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.  In 2008, the program granted approximately US$1.9million to projects in Southeast Asia.

more info | Deadline: 1 December 2009

18 April 2006, 12:00 PM
Presented by Jonathon Rigg, Geography, University of Durham, UK

As the Head of the Geography Department at the Durkham University, Jonathon Rigg’s research interests encompass, in broad terms, the problems, tensions and potentialities of development in the Southeast Asian region. This is based on a long-term commitment to the region dating back to 1980.

Initially his work had an agricultural focus. His PhD research, which included an extended period in Thailand based in the poor Northeastern region, examined the constraints that the environment placed on farmers as they attempted to increase production in this marginal area. The research resulted in a series of publications that sought to reappraise the role of the environment as a determining factor at a time when such views were out of vogue.

The work also, however, highlighted the declining role of agriculture in people’s lives and this led to two follow-up pieces of fieldwork. First, an examination of the role of migration and remittances in rural people’s livelihood strategies; and second, a return visit to the original research site where Dr. Rigg tracked down the subjects of the initial PhD fieldwork to appraise trajectories of change over the intervening years. A series of articles examining the deep-seated transformations that are occurring in rural areas of Southeast Asia resulted and an integrating book is due to be published at the end of 2000.

Another thread to Dr. Rigg’s research has been a continuing interest in the environment and, more particularly, in political ecology. This is reflected in an edited book and papers on such topics as dam construction, forest management, and the non-timber forest products. Rather more widely, Dr. Rigg’s work on rural areas of Southeast Asia has also spawned a number of subsidiary interests, all with an emphasis on contemporary development issues: on the role of NGOs in development; on languages of modernisation; and on exclusion, ethnicity, citizenship and nation building.