Killing Fields Survivors Oral History Project
Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians
were killed in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. According
to historians of the period, children were separated from
their parents, millions were forced into labor camps, and
almost 30 percent of the population died of starvation, torture
or execution at the hands of the Marxist government. Some
of the survivors of the genocide, known as the Killing Fields,
came as refugees to Portland and southern Maine.
More than 25 years after the Cambodian holocaust, their personal
stories are largely untold. And the younger generations among
Maine's Cambodian community for the most part do not know
the details or the painful memories of this traumatic history.
Through a collaborative grant, Ana Lazar, associate professor
of social work, and Rotha Chan, president of the Killing Fields
Survivors Society (KFSS) of southern Maine and former USM
student, are working to capture some of the stories of elders
of the local Cambodian community and create an archive of
family members lost to the Killing Fields.
Chan, a portfolio associate at Key Bank, founded the Killing
Fields Survivors Society in late 1997 with a few others from
the Cambodian community who wanted to memorialize the victims
of the Killing Fields.
Like most Cambodians, Chan's own family suffered terrible
losses, with six of ten family members killed, including his
own father. He believes the Survivors Society can help bring
a sense of closure to the tragedy. Back then, he said, "there
was no public outcry from the rest of the world, no international
tribunal or trials." The younger generation of Cambodians
saw that their elders didn't talk about their experiences.
The Society wanted to "make it okay for survivors to talk
about their experience," he said, "so they won't have to keep
living with grief."
Lazar had been in touch with Chan during USM's 1999-2000
Convocation on "Religion and the Human Experience," and she
learned of the Survivors Society then. When she saw the announcement
for the University of Maine System/ Maine Humanities Council
Grant Program for Collaborative Research on Maine's Cultural
Heritage, she thought the grant fit well with the goals of
the Cambodian community organization. The grant program, now
discontinued as a result of budget cutbacks, fostered collaborations
between the campuses of the University of Maine System and
community organizations in order to "expand and preserve ...knowledge
of Maine's rich multi-cultural heritage."
Through the $5000 grant, which they wrote together, Chan
and Lazar are creating a forum for the personal experiences
of survivors to be told and shared, not only with younger
Cambodians, but also with the larger community of Maine residents
through the KFSS Web site.
Given the complexity of translating from the Cambodian language
Khmer, Lazar and Chan decided to record a limited number of
oral histories. Chan identified participants, recruiting interview
subjects, interpreters, translators, and transcribers. Lazar,
the project scholar, has provided expertise in writing the
grant, on the IRB process (regulations on human subjects),
and in shaping the interview. She also reviews the transcripts
looking for themes and representative accounts.
They selected eight people willing to tell their stories,
choosing a spread in ages as much as possible while not choosing
anyone who wasn't at least a teenager during the late 1970s.
In addition to preserving the Cambodian cultural heritage,
Chan and Lazar hope the stories of those interviewed will
encourage others to share their stories and make it acceptable
to talk.
American-raised Cambodians, Chan says, don't understand Khmer
in-depth. In addition to the gap in language, there are cultural
barriers to surmount before the stories can be told. Parents
don't discuss problems with children in the more formal Cambodian
family structure. In addition, some survivors still fear recriminations
if they speak out. One subject said in an interview that he
hadn't told his children because the horror of the killing
fields would be unimaginable and unbelievable to children
born in the safety and stability of Maine.
By educating the younger generation about their cultural
history, Lazar and Chan believe the project will help heal
the rift in the community.
Although the Cambodian population in Maine has grown to about
5000 since the first refugees arrived in Maine about 20 years
ago, mostly in Portland, Biddeford and Saco, they have not
had much visibility in the state. "Having the university involved,"
Lazar says, "sends a message to the Cambodian community that
these histories are important to the larger community."
At this point, Lazar says, they have completed half the interviews,
which are conducted in Khmer, then transcribed and translated
by members of the community as they have time.
In the meantime, they are moving ahead with the Web site,which
will include extracts of some of the stories and archives
of family members who died that can be added to in the future.
In addition, they are creating a resource file with bibliographies
and other resources for study of the Cambodian genocide.
The stories will also be assembled into an edited booklet
to be distributed to public schools in southern Maine. The
stories will be presented in language suitable for middle
school age.
Chan believes the oral histories project will broaden the
public school curriculum. "By making the curriculum more inclusive,"
he said, "not only will the immigrant children benefit by
having their histories included, but mainstream children will
benefit, by learning more about the history of the newcomers
living among them."
Lazar will use elements from this research in a course she
is teaching spring semester on "Social Work With Immigrants
and Refugees."
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