The Museumgoer story in the April 6 edition of the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate previews “Making It Home: From Vietnam to New Orleans,” a new exhibit on view at the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) through October 5. The exhibit builds on about a decade of oral history interviews with members of the local Vietnamese community and covers a half-century of that community’s story since the April 30, 1975, fall of Saigon.
The current local community of those with Vietnamese lineage numbers in the tens of thousands. Their presence is attributed to the Gulf Coast’s subtropical climate, its fishing and shrimping industries, and the support of Catholic charities.
The exhibit is organized in four sections. The first, “Things Fall Apart,” tracks the movement of families within North and South Vietnam. Part two, “Adrift,” follows the postwar diaspora to US shores. The “Coming Together” sequence explores the geographical pockets of local resettlement. “Stepping Forward, Looking Back” tracks the gradual but inevitable process of assimilation. “It’s about that ‘Generation 1.5,’ this sort of entering into the community as a whole,” said Mark Cave, senior historian and the exhibit’s curator.
The exhibit’s title, “Making It Home,” carries a double meaning. “It’s about both the act of finally finding a generational home but also the process of making this their home,” Cave said. “And so those two themes are prominent in the exhibition.”
Spotlights for that concept are re-created dining space and living room. Actual news footage of one local family’s perilous boat rescue plays on the living room’s vintage TV set. An interactive display allows visitors to track the family’s Vietnam-to-New Orleans journey. Visitors can sit at the dining table to hear individuals tell their resettlement stories.
Read the story here. Listen to a podcast interview with Mark Cave, senior historian and the exhibit’s curator, and Candy Ellison, who designed some of the exhibit’s interactive displays, here.
Some images from the gallery are here:
Special thanks to Mark and Candy, and to you for reading and maybe listening.
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