R2W Represent 2 Witness: reflections and testimonies

reflections & testimonies

This mural was created not by a single artist, but by all the 2006 Represent to Witness participants and staff people working together collaboratively. Our group was diverse and included immigrants, refugee, and American-born people of Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, Filipino, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, Native American, Scandinavian, and Scottish descent, Methodists, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterians, Mormons, Buddhists, and agnostics, ranging in age from 16-51; working class and middle class, gay and straight, from California, Hawaii, and New York. In an age of race wars, class wars, and all kinds of wars, this is significant.

We set out to paint this mural in the tradition of the Mexican Mural Movement: To document our Asian American and Pacific Islander histories because it is not in our history textbooks, to show our communities the world through our eyes as young Asian American and Pacific Islander people of various faiths and experiences, and to share our dreams and visions for a better world. The mural medium was intentional; we hoped that our use of a visual language of colorful images would transcend generation gaps and language barriers.

Our story is told in a spiral. It begins in the center with what makes us feel alive. The outer rings of the spiral depict the ripple effects of our participation in R2W: we identify some of the problems that we see in our communities, analyze the history and roots of these problems, recognize resistance and struggle, and then envision and innovate direct actions and alternatives to address these problems.

We want to thank the FAITHS Initiative of the San Francisco Foundation and the PANA Institute at the Pacific School of Religion, who recognized the importance of this mural project and made it possible through their support.

	“Being with my family makes me feel alive.” - Terisa S.
	“Playing lacrosse makes me feel alive. I’m part Native American and lacrosse was originally a war game played between Native American tribes. There was a knife at the end of the lacrosse stick and the tribe that lost would sacrifice an entire village to the other tribe.” - Gabriel C.
	“Lying down in the hills, taking in air, keeping to my thoughts is my own form of meditation away from society, technology, and other things that are harming communities.” - Chloe D.
	“I write poetry – that’s how I express my feelings.” - Tina H.
	“I’ve been living on islands – Samoa and Hawaii – all my life. I rarely go to the beach, but that’s when I feel alive. Every time I go, I sit with the sun opposite from me and just sit.” - Siouleolelei P.
	“Traditional Samoan culture and music makes me feel alive.” - Ose H.
	“The two coconut trees represent Samoa. It was my favorite thing – kind of a sport for me – to climb a coconut tree, grab a coconut, and eat it. The faleo’o is a place of gathering in Samoa and it represents my culture. I’m very proud of being a Samoan Angel, but I’m bigger than my culture – there’s times when I can’t take it and when I fight it…” - Angellyna T.
	“These three war clubs – a Tongan pate kai’lau, a Fijian ax, and a Samoan fu’e – represent who I am because I’m Tongan, Fijian, and Samoan. I mostly know about my Tongan side and I would love to know more about my other sides. I feel alive when I do cultural stuff because I feel larger than myself… like I’m representing my ancestors. Keeping my cultures with me keeps them alive.” - Penitani M.
	“Different people do different things that make them feel alive – play the piano, rap, dance, write poetry...” - Timothy E.
	“This is me inside my VW bug driving across the country. Dreaming of crazy things keeps me going.” - Andrew T.
	“Myspace.com is a way that we are all connected and can stay connected to each other.” - Chelsea W.
	“Samoan families give money to Samoan churches so that when people are in need, the church can give them money.” - Terisa S.

	“An obituary with an ‘X’ representing all of the youth dying today…” - Christina C.
	“I had a friend who wanted to be a doctor, but she ended up getting pregnant and having children at a young age. She thinks she can’t become a doctor anymore, but there are always possibilities. You can always aspire to be something else.” - Candace V.
	“There are lots of stereotypes of African American people as thugs and drug dealers. A lot of people wear Jesus crosses, but then they do all this other stuff…” - Candace V.
	“Police are not there when you need them and there when you don’t. Rampart is a corrupt district near where I live in Los Angeles that is notorious for racial profiling.” - Donovan A.
	“A young black youth thinking about all the violence in society and how it’s affecting the schools… With all these problems, you still have to deal with all the regular stuff like love, life, and death. It brings him sadness, but he still has the faith to continue to go on. He remembers all the people who came before him and all the struggles they fought to get us to the point where we can go to school and we can learn and become successful.” - Victor M.
	“I feel pressured to do well in school and get good grades.” - Chelsea W.
	“There are a lot of teenagers out there who are trying to be something they’re not just to be liked by cool people, so they’re not being themselves.” - Tina H.
	“Where I live in San Jose, everyone is white except for me.” - Terisa S.
	“The bridge between my past – my culture – and my present is broken. The two don’t connect.” - Terisa S.
	“One day, a White man came to my great great grandma’s house and told my great great grandmother that we were part Irish and that we were all related. Nobody really knew…” - Dominique N.

	“Queen Salote was the first female queen of Tonga. She brought peace to Tonga and made sure that Tonga was never colonized.” - Sina U.
	“The young woman lying on the discus represents young people not having a choice in everything that’s going on around them and being thrown when everything is moving so fast.” - Maikiko J.
	“Ships coming to colonize the Philippines or other nations that were colonized in the past are met with the weapon of Lapu Lapu.” - Lorena D.
	“I’m fishing… There is a shooting, a guy dying, and two people acting like there’s nothing happening.” - Sarath K.
	"Slavery in America..." - Christina C.
	"The Katipunan was a group of revolutionary Filipino people who rose up against the Spanish colonizers in their struggle for justice. " -Lorena D.
	“Me and my best friend who’s Mexican. We are chained together with struggle. We both came to the United States in 1994 and we both have colonial last names. I am struggling with faith right now, so I have a cross in one hand and a Buddha in the other. Maribel is struggling with nationality along with Latina/os. A goddess wearing the ankh that represents life is crying over us.” - Sophay D.
	“Candles to keep the fire going for the struggle…” - Lorena D.
	“A Japanese American thinking about being American…” - Toshio O.
	“A guy with chains is trying to escape, but he’s pulling hard and his wrists are bleeding into the water. Each cut represents torture that he’s been through.” - John N.
	“People are blindfolded and gagged by colonization. I am blinded from the Philippine sun, but my mouth is open and I am exercising my voice, shouting in my native tongue “Da hil say o” – “Because of You”. “ - Kyle D.
	“The brick wall represents the hard things in life. A beautiful flower is rising up against the brick wall. With R2W, unique hope and love comes up in these hard places, bringing change.” - Crystal T.
	“I’m proud to be Tongan.” - Pelenatita O.

	“A nuclear factory polluting the air with chemicals can be converted into a solar power plant.” - John N.
	“This is a goal for the future: for us to stop spending money on the military and on arms and more on education.” - Andrew T.
	“A bunch of people – a Native American, a Repulican, an anarchist punk, an Asian man, a Mexican, an African woman, and a Muslim – are sitting on an equal sign because they’re all equal. They are enjoying the clouds and each other’s company.” - Donovan A.
	“Four people with arms raised join to create peace in unity.” - Timothy E.
	“When I learned about the Equality Ride that Kayla (an R2W 2006 Staff person) went on to end religious-based oppression of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) people, I was so moved. I want to go do it or something like it. It’s so important.” - Chloe D.
	“Maikiko (an R2W 2006 Resource Assistant) wrote a screenplay called Homeland that was recently read at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York. As an aspiring filmmaker, it’s cool to be with someone like Maikiko who is involved in the independent film industry and is contributing to Asian Americans in film.” - Toshio O.
	“This represents Samoan women who want to be ministers. This is my dream. Maybe in five to seven years, it won’t be a dream anymore, it will be my reality. She has no face because it’s not me; it’s just a representation of me… It’s going to be real for me and not just a painting.” - Siouleolelei P.
	“Old people with canes, children, and people with children on their backs are on a journey. Are they going willingly or are they fleeing? Are they refugees? They are going at night – African slaves and refugees had to escape by night. They are leaving the institutional church, but the moon and stars continue to be with them and they just keep walking.” - Rev. Deborah L.

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Experience from the Grassroots Out The 2006 Mural Project

Experience from the Grassroots Out
The 2006 Mural Project