From the Library of Congress in
Washington DC.
>> ERIC ELDRITCH:  Good
afternoon, 
everyone.  As we settle in and
begin our
program, it's important to know
that we are 
here in large part due to the
interest and
energy of an intern at our
office, Micaela Viluu. 
Come on up.  Come on up. Her
personal
interest in research and skill
has lead us to 
today's program.  I ask that you
help me to
acknowledge in advance the
combined efforts 
of Michaela, Humanity Social
Sciences
Division, the Library of
Congress Asian-
American Association, and my
office EEO and
Diversity Programs.
[Applause]
Today's program draws on the
experience that 
enriches, that illustrates the
principles of
inclusion that enrich our
understanding of the 
world.  And now we have two
members of the
Pacific Edge Dance Troop to
bring two dances as a Samoan
greeting to open our program.
[Applause]
♫ MUSIC ♫
[Applause]
♫ MUSIC ♫
[Applause]
>> JANE SANCHEZ:  Good
afternoon.  That 
was a lovely opening to our
program this
afternoon.  Thank you so much.
We 
appreciate that so many of you
could attend
today's program.  My name is
Jane Sanchez.  
And I'm Chief of the Humanities
and Social
Sciences Division which we call
HSS.  HSS 
serves as the physical and
intellectual
gateway to the general
collections of the Library of
Congress.
>> [Interruption by operator]
Waiting to connect.
>> JANE SANCHEZ: Hello.
[Chuckles]
Something's talking to me up
here.  Thank 
you. Division activities reflect
our multi-role
charge to support reference and
research, 
develop the collection, serves
as a
professional liaison to many
other libraries and 
librarians.  We provide
instruction, mentoring,
and we work on special projects
to enhance 
access to our collections. HSS
also has
custodial responsibility for a
microform and 
machine readable collection in
the microform
and machine readable
collection's reading 
room.  And we also have
extensive reference
collections for both the main
reading room and 
also local history and genealogy
reading room.
We are honored to collaborate
this afternoon 
with LC's Asian-American
Association and
EEO and Diversity Programs on
today's 
event.  This marks the Library's
opening event
for Asian-Pacific American
Heritage Month that 
is celebrated annually across
the nation in
May.  The Heritage Month
provides us an 
opportunity to acknowledge and
honor the
incredibly rich heritage and
diverse 
contribution of the
Asian-Americans and
Pacific Islanders to our great
nation. Our 
Library website has literally
thousands of
pages with information about
Asian and Pacific 
Islanders.  Today's program,
along with other
Asian and Pacific Islanders
information, can 
be found on a single portal that
is coordinated
by the Library.  We hope that
all of you will visit 
it at some point.  It's
AsianPacificHeritage.gov.
And please look at it at your
convenience. Without further
adieu, I hereto introduce our
featured speaker, is acting
Librarian of Congress, David
Mao. David.
[Applause]
>> DAVID MAO:  Thank you so
much, Jane, 
and good afternoon to all of
you.  And I want to
echo what Jane had to say about
that 
introduction that we had from
the two of you.
That was just simply, that was
really beautiful.  
It was just amazing. I also want
to
congratulate all of the entities
here at the 
Library of Congress for this
terrific event that
we're having.  The LC
Asian-American 
Association, the Humanities and
Social
Science Division, HSS, and the
Office of 
Equal Employment Opportunity and
Diversity,
it's terrific when various
entities across the 
Library can come together and
jointly sponsor
events.  It shows, again, the
diversity that we 
have here at the Library and
also the
commonalities that we have in
the Library in 
working together to put on
wonderful
programs. And it's my pleasure,
of course, 
today to be here, not as the
feature speaker as
Jane said, but to introduce our
featured 
speaker.  I'm very, very honored
that I'm able
to do so, Congresswoman Aumua
Amata 
Coleman Radewagen, who is the
third
member to be elected from
American Samoa 
and first woman to be elected
from American
Samoa, and we're very, very
delighted that 
she's able to be able to join
us. Just to tell you
a little bit about her, she
holds the order title of 
Aumua from the village of Pago
Pago in
American Samoa where she's been
actively 
involved in fostering community
health, sports,
and business initiatives. Here
as a member of 
Congress she sits on the Small
Business
Veterans Affairs and National
Resources 
Committees. She might be new to
this
position here on Capitol Hill,
but she's no 
stranger to Capitol Hill and
also the issues that
are very important to American
Samoa and 
our community.  For example
you'll see in your
program that in 2001, President
George W. 
Bush appointed her to be on the
President's
Commission on Asian-Americans
and Pacific 
Islanders which helped advise
the President
on issues important to that
community.  And at 
that time they issued a landmark
report on the
health care needs of America's
Asian-
American Pacific Islander
communities. She's
also a very active in the
International 
Republican Institute and the
International
Federation for Electoral
Systems.  She's 
made numerous presentations
around the
world talking about these
important issues and 
helping to train and build
democratic
institutions. Now you heard a
little bit our 
collections here from Jane at
the Library of
Congress.  We're very proud that
we do have 
an Asian-American and Pacific
Islander
collection here.  The materials
here at the 
Library help preserve that very
great and
varied legacy in that community
including 
American Samoa, and so certainly
with the
Congresswoman's presence today,
she helps 
to continue to highlight the
importance of that
culture, that history, and that
collection here at 
the Library of Congress. So
please join me in
welcoming her to the stage. 
Thank you very 
much.
[Applause]
>> AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN
RADEWAGEN:  
Thank you very much, David, for
that kind
introduction.  I appreciate the
warm words, 
and I'm sure that everybody here
knows
David.  But David Mao does serve
as the 
Librarian of Congress, a very
distinguished
appointment, and I'm proud to
know that it's 
held by a fellow Asian-Pacific
American.  So
thank you again, David, for that
introduction. 
Before we proceed today, as is
the culture of
our people, whenever there --
and the culture, 
the Samoan culture, if you were
to find one
word to describe it, it is built
around the crux of 
respect.  And whenever Samoans
gather it is
always appropriate to say one or
two words of 
respect and recognition to those
who are
present. So before I proceed,
with your 
permission, I'm going to do
that.
[Speaking words of respect in
foreign 
language]
As you may already know in 1992
Congress 
passed a resolution officially
declaring the
entire month of May as
Asian-Pacific American 
Heritage Month.  So it is my
pleasure and I'm
very blessed and honored to be
here with you 
all today to help celebrate and
recognize the
many contributions and
achievements that 
Asian-Pacific Americans have
made to our
great nation. Throughout the
history of the 
United States the flow of
immigrants into the
nation has continuously
rejuvenated the 
country both economically and
socially.
Thanks to our history books we
are all aware 
of the great influx of
immigrants from Europe
in the early 1900's, undoubtedly
a crucial piece 
of the nation's rich history and
a driver of the
industrial revolution. We also
learn of the great 
influx of African-Americans
during one of the
most shameful periods of our
nation's history; 
however, today the contributions
of the
African-American culture and
people are 
rightfully abundant, well
respected, and highly
recognized. When it comes to
Asian-Pacific 
American contributions, probably
our society
doesn't know as much as they
could or 
should.  If you were to ask your
average
citizen walking down the street
to name some 
contributions to American
society from
Asian-Pacific Americans, I'm
willing to bet that 
the most common answer would be
the
construction of the railroads in
the 1800's.  A 
great contribution indeed, but
we have done so
much more.  And it is one of my
goals as the 
member of Congress from American
Samoa
to ensure that those many
contributions are 
neither forgotten more
dismissed. The term
Asian-Pacific American
encompasses a 
multitude of different cultures,
values, and
traditions.  And while on the
outside that may 
seem to pose an obstacle to real
unification,
it's actually a very powerful
tool that has the 
ability to reach much further
and have more
influence than if we were to all
try to achieve 
our separate goals together. 
Together we are
19.4 million strong, and we're
going to keep 
growing. Now this year's theme,
"Walk
Together, Embrace Differences,
Build 
Legacies," which I believe is
the perfect theme
to help solidify the message we
bring as 
Asian-Pacific Americans. Walk
together, as I
stated early, our group is a
vast one 
comprised of many different
cultures.  We
must put aside any conflicting
interest for the 
greater good of all
Asian-Pacific Americans.
Embrace differences, well,
instead of pointing 
out what makes us different and
biased, let us
instead highlight a positive way
that makes 
each of our cultures unique and
recognize
what that may do for the greater
good. Build 
legacies, those who came before
us have
really done the hardest work. 
They were the 
ones who had to fight racial
discrimination and
a real lack of resources and an
opportunity 
which, yes, certainly still
exists today, but
nowhere near the level at which
those who 
preceded us had to deal with.
Let us
continue to build upon what they
started with 
their blood, sweat, and tears,
and if we could
all come together as one while
bringing our 
own unique and rich cultures to
the table, we
can reach levels that not even
those who 
paved the way could ever have
imagined. You
know, a few years back I was
asked to 
conduct seminars in the Central
Asian country
of Kazakhstan, part of the
former Soviet 
Union.  Its capital, Almaty, is
almost as far
from Moscow as Pago Pago is from
Washington.  And so while I was
there many of
the Kazakh leaders would ask me
what my 
nationality was, and I would
always reply, "I'm
an American Samoan," which would
always in 
turn elicit the follow-up
question of, "How can
that be?  How can you be so far
away from the 
United States and yet feel so
American?"  I
said, "Well, it's something we
understand 
intuitively, but it's difficult
to put into words for
other people."  How can I be a
Pacific Islander 
and a loyal American?  Well,
this comfortable
duality exist side-by-side
within us.  And you 
know President Ronald Reagan
once said,
"You cannot move to France and
become 
French.  You cannot move to
Germany and
become German.  But you can move
to the 
United States and become
American."  And
that is what makes our country
so different 
and so remarkable. Beyond the
many private
and cultural contributions we've
made, Asian-
Americans, Asian-Pacific
Americans also lead
the way in public service.  One
thing I make 
sure to remind my colleagues in
Congress
about whenever the opportunity
presents itself 
is the rate of enlistment into
our nation's
armed forces by Americans who
reside in the 
Pacific Region.  American
Samoans this
happens to be higher than any
other geographical region in the
country.  So for the
military people who are here
today thank you so much for your
service to our nation. Our
young men and women put their
lives on the line every day at a
rate 10 times those of here
in the states.  The dedication
to this great nation from our
many cultures cannot be
underestimated.  And I'm proud
to come from a family with a
strong military tradition and a
long line of service men and
service women who sacrificed
much in the name of our
country.  At a time when the
threat of terrorism is so
constant, those of us who live
in small,
remote Pacific Islands can thank
God for guiding us to a place
that is peaceful and gives
us a great sense of security. 
And I thank God that he made me
a member of a wonderful
race of people who would leave
that peace and tranquility and
go forth into the world to
protect their fellow man so that
we can all enjoy our freedom and
way of life. So I want to
encourage all of you here today
to go out, spread the word on
the contributions to the
United States that our people
have made.  Do not do so
boastfully but rather humbly and
informatively as is our nature. 
It's not our way to thump our
chests like Tarzan or shout from
the rooftops.  We simply put our
noses to the grindstone and work
harder than the guy next
to us.  That is how we will
continue to build upon the
legacy we have begun. I want to
thank the Library of Congress
for allowing me to be here today
to speak to all of you.  And
please know that my office is
open to each and every one of
you should you ever need
assistance or simply want to
come by and say talofa or hello.
God bless the Pacific.  God
bless the United States of
America.  Thank you.
[Applause]
>> TRAVIS PAINTER:  Hello, I'm
Travis Painter, the Interpreting
Services Program
Manager here at the Library.  I
want to thank you so much
Congresswoman for coming and
supporting this. This year we
started an internship program
within the Interpreting
Services Program, first year. 
And I get to introduce Micaela
Viluu who put all of this
together.  And she's also the
first intern that we have had. 
So we're very excited to have
you
here.  One of the parts of her
internship was to use library
resources and materials to come
up with one presentation.  In
Micaela fashion she came back
and said I have four that I
would like to do.
[Chuckles]
And being a supportive mentor I
said, "Absolutely not."
[Chuckles]
She did all four.  This is the
fourth that she has done.  And
this one meant so much to her
because it is her heritage and
her culture.  When she came with
all of these
presentations, we had Eric
Eldritch in our office, who is
the program specialist, and so
he really, really helped Micaela
with the other ones. So,
Micaela, I'll have you up now. 
And in
addition to her coming up and
turning it over to her, I do
have a certificate that I wanted
to
present to her for her time here
at the Library.  She's been here
since January volunteering
her service working with our
deaf and hard of hearing staff. 
And being an interpreting intern
they always say that being a
mentor you get to look from your
mentee just as much as they
do you, and that's really been
the case.  I have enjoyed her
very much.  And because of the
support of our Chief of Staff
Robert Newlen and Acting
Librarian David Mao we were able
to implement this internship. 
And I do feel bad for the rest
of the interns that come after
her.
They have quite, quite a bar. 
So, Micaela, this is for you,
just a certificate.
[Applause]
>> MICAELA VILUU:  Thank you.
>> TRAVIS PAINTER:  Thank you so
much.
[Applause]
Over a little bit more.
[Chuckles]
Right there. And the podium is
yours.  I'll take it for you. 
I'll take it.  Thank you.
>> MICAELA VILUU: Many people
might think that "the podium is
yours" would be
encouraging, but I'm a little
nervous and I'm happy I made it
up the stairs.  And I know this
is a little ill-fashioned, but
before I begin I would like to
say, "Hi, Dad."  And also hello
to my
"Tina" and "Tima" who could not
be here today, unfortunately
they couldn't make the travels,
but although they are 81 and 85
they sat down this past week and
wrote down our entire
family heritage and sent it to
me.  So if you would like to see
that, that is yours for the
viewing. I guess without further
adieu I will formally begin my
presentation.  So David
Mao, Congresswoman, thank you
for joining us today, honored
guests, community
members, and family as well. 
Today is a very important day
for me to be able to speak about
the journey that I got to just
go through while here at the
Library.  The Library is
actually the
nation's first cultural
institution, if you were not
aware, so I could not think of a
more
appropriate place to hold an
event such like this. Fa'asamoa,
the Samoan way are words
that I didn't quite understand
when I arrived.  They are words
that as a child were
impressed on my heart. 
Fa'asamoa are the words also
imprinted on the sacred tattoos
of
my family members, on the arm of
my father, the iconic art
representations found on the
skin of my brothers and sisters,
deep meaning portrayed on the
legs of my cousins, the
identifying marks resting on my
shoulder blade, still the
meaning escaped until coming
to the Library of Congress just
four months ago. As an Eastern
Kentucky University
Student in the American Sign
Language Training Program, I was
elated to be the first
Interpreting Services Program
intern here at the Library of
Congress.  I Micaela Viluu was
the chosen student to start this
pilot off with.  They took a
chance on me, and I hope that
they're proud of that.  And so
it truly is an honor.  Thank
you, Travis, for the certificate
which was a surprise. Prior to
arriving I had an idea of the
task that I would be doing when
I
was here.  I was going to be
observing qualified
interpreters.  I would team with
qualified interpreters and build
relationships with professionals
in the community and
language mentors.  Within the
deaf community that community
actually has some
parallels with the Samoan
community within the last 60
years as well. Considering that
my
internship was going to be
focused on sign language, the
culture that I was looking to
immerse myself in was within the
deaf community.  I could have
never predicted that
my time here would also lead to
an understanding of myself and
finding pieces of
myself that I never knew to be
missing. During the last four
months, I have researched with a
goal of understanding an
identity and culture that I
never truly studied nor
understood.  And
though all of my work, through
all of my work I am happy to say
that my journey of
understanding is just beginning
and will be an ongoing and
lifetime journey. When you work
here at the Library of Congress,
you might be taking for granted
the immense collections
that are housed here.  There are
more than a 162 million items,
more than 38 million
cataloged and printed materials,
those span over 470 different
languages -- more than 70
million manuscripts, and 838
miles of bookshelves.  And those
are housed both here
in the building.  They are also
in the Jefferson.  And there's
some in two locations that are
not
here as well as online.  So if
you find anything interesting in
the collections, you will be
able to
find those as well. My research
took me through lives and laws
of Samoa, Western
Samoa, and American Samoans.  I
met with librarians and
curators, experts, community
members.  I saw myself portrayed
in the pictures of my ancestors.
I saw explanations
of the iconic images portrayed
on the skins of my family
members.  I saw more ancestors
and architecture. Fa'asamoa,
what does it mean?  The
materials that I found here at
the
Library and some of you will be
able to view at the end of
today's program, have given me
an
insight to Samoan culture,
community, and heritage the
Samoan way.  Upon further
research it seemed that many of
the materials were written about
Samoa were not actually
written by Samoans or even come
from Samoa itself.  In fact most
of them were
written by outsiders of the
Samoan community and culture. 
My work in deaf studies teaches
me a similar lesson in that
there can be words of difference
between materials about a
people in comparison with the
voice of authenticity of
material written by the people,
and so it is with fa'asamoa. In
the brief time that I have let
me walk you through my
research journey beginning with
manuscripts and general
collections.  When first
researching through the Library
resources I saw many materials
from the 1800's or earlier
on.  Those consisted of German
and European languages.  These
materials
seemed to have more of a
descriptive nature than a
commentary on our culture and
heritage. Within the manuscript
division there is an
unprecedented collection of
Margaret
Mead material.  Her famous
research,  "Coming to Age in
America Samoa," stands as
an anthropological case study on
Samoans through the eyes and
experiences of Dr. Mead
and her ethnography of Samoans
in the 1920's.  However, also in
the collections of her
work is described by others to
be too ambitious an undertaking
even if respectfully
so.  Upon finding this book I
was instinctively excited. 
Margaret Mead is an
anthropologist
who is widely respected.  So of
course in my excitement I called
my dad and realized that
he had a severe lack of
excitement which brought me to
some curiosity.  So with the
encouragement of Eric Eldritch I
was on the hunt to see why my
father would react in such
a way.  And I found this,
"Margaret Mead's Coming to Age
in America Samoa, a
Dissenting View."  In his
dissension Goodman addresses the
shortcomings and
assumptions made in Mead's
conclusions and final writings
after spending six months with a
group of Samoan girls.  Reading
this article brought me some
perspective on my father's
reaction to my excitement when
finding 
Mead's original work. 
Nevertheless as a
researcher I encourage you to
read both pieces and for
yourself develop your own
thoughts and opinions.  And yet
even though he has a dissenting
view, some of his words
still do not portray or
represent the people I love or
the culture that I have come to
value. A
legal scholar defined fa'asamoa
as what you see on the screen
which would have been
acceptable had it not also been
followed up with the idea of
western enlightenment.  Within
his writing his emphasizes the
importance of western
enlightenment on the Samoan
culture.  And instead of just
defining what our ways were, he
defined what our ways could
be and what they may, should be.
So does this maybe present a
problem for the American
Samoan or just the Samoan
culture?  Who is speaking on our
behalf and how will we share
fa'asamoa with the next
generation if we are not
speaking for ourselves? Through
everything that I have learned,
through all that I have read,
all of the materials that I have
been
able to bless my hands with,
none could truly compare, could
not truly convey what
fa'asamoa really means.  So why
might you ask was I not able to
find one single material
that would tell me where my
family is from or one part of me
that was missing?  Why was I
in not one material able to
change a self-label into a
personal identity?  The reason
is our
culture could not be found in
just one book or one map.  It
isn't found in a picture dating
hundreds of years back.  My
culture was in everything that I
touched, that I read, and that I
discussed over, everything that
I was exposed to. I have always
been a very straightforward
person.  My character not
appreciating ambiguity or
answers to an abstract equation.
I am a person who has a question
and seeks the answer.  Little
did I know that my research
for what is fa'asamoa would not
give me an answer but instead
set me on a journey that I
will continue to the end of my
days.  This journey consisted of
challenging what I already
knew about my Samoan identity,
finding dissensions to research
that many had
believed to be fact,
understanding the exploration,
colonization, and in some ways
the dissemination of our culture
and searching for how later I
can work to preserve and
cultivate what was left. If you
look to the screens, Veteran
History Project and
StoryCorps are two programs that
the Library of Congress has that
are actually useful in
preserving our culture. 
StoryCorps is a way that we can
tell our own stories in that my
Tima can sit down and talk for
hours and hours and hours, and
that's okay, and people
want to listen. Considering
we're gathered here at a
Library, I would like to end
with a
quote from the Fiddler on the
Roof:  How do we keep our
balance?  That I can tell you in
one word, "tradition."  Because
of our traditions, we have kept
our balance for many,
many years.  Because of our
tradition, every one of us knows
who he is and what God
expects him to do.  Without our
traditions, our lives would be
as shaky as a fiddler on the
roof. In conclusion I want to
encourage you to use as many
resources here at the Library of
Congress as I was exposed to,
but also remember the words from
Tina and Tima,
listen closely to the language
that you have been given,
treasure the pieces of home that
you keep in your hearts despite
your distance, but most of all,
in all that you do, make sure to
do it in a way of your heritage,
the way of your culture, the
Samoan way, fa'asamoa. Thank
you.
[Applause]
>> And thank you, Micaela, for
your research in these
collections.  As part of this
program
we are highlighting the
collections of the Library of
Congress.  Micaela has worked
with
a number of areas in the
Library, specifically the
American Folklife Center,
Geography and
Map Division, our Law Library,
the Prints and Photographs
Division, and also the general
collections of the Library. 
What you see and we invite you
to, again, peruse following this
event, is a sampling of these
collections.  There is much
more.  And in fact as resources
to help you find more
information, we've prepared for
this event Samoan culture and
history resources for research
here at the Library of Congress
and also another handout
that you'll find at the table,
researches on the Samoan
community. So please avail you
of
these, but also as you pursue
your research here at the
Library, to consult the
reference
staff, both onsite and online,
through "Ask a librarian," so
that we may help you make the
connection between the rich
resources here at the Library
and your research needs.  Thank
you.
[Applause]
>> YASMIN HUN:  We're coming to
the end of the program.  And I'm
Yasmin Hun, the
President of the Library of
Congress, American Association,
which is one of the co-
sponsors of this program. We'd
really like to thank you
Congresswoman Aumua Amata.  It
was truly an honor to have you
here today and to hear about
your work, advocacy work for
Samoans, Asian-Pacific Islander,
Americans and Asians in general.
I think we look forward
to hearing more about that in
the future. Thank you, David Mao
for being here today and
Micaela for all her hard work. 
She masterminded this program to
end her
internship with a great bang, so
to speak.  I look forward to
your graduation and hope to
see what you do in the future. 
I'm sure it's going to be
something fantastic. Thank you
to
the Samoan community for coming
here today and to the Library of
Congress, Asian-
American Association members and
everybody else who is here
today. On behalf of
the Library of Congress,
Asian-American Association,
we're very happy to have worked
with the Office of Equal
Employment Opportunity and
Diversity, HSS, to prepare this
program as it gives us a chance
to consider our Asian-American
community how we
consider ourselves at the
present, reflect on our past,
and prepare for the future. This
is an
annual opportunity to
demonstrate the diversity of
Asian and Asian-Pacific
Americans as a
whole and in this Library
community.  This year we are
very happy to have highlighted
and reflected on the many ways
Asian-Pacific island heritage,
culture, and achievements
have enriched this nation and
continue to so. To end, I'd just
like to bring our program chair
Angel Vu to talk about future
events that we're going to have
this month which I hope you will
all attend. Thank you.
[Applause]
>> ANGEL VU:  Again thank you
everyone for your support and
for making this event a
success.  Continuing with our
observance of Asian-American,
Asian-Pacific American
Heritage Month we have a couple
more exciting events coming up. 
The first event
co-sponsored by the Library of
Congress Asian-American
Association and the Science
Technology and Business Division
is titled, "World Energy
Transformation Asian and
Beyond."  Dr. G.P. Yeh will be
speaking.  Dr. Yeh is a high
energy physicist at the Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory
and the US Atomic Energy
Commission.  His numerous
works and contributions include
the discovery of the Top Quark
large scale computing using
Linux and new Hadron Particle
Therapy Centers in Illinois,
Taiwan and worldwide. The
second event co-sponsored by the
American Folklife Center and the
Library of Congress
Asian-American Association is
titled, "Soumya Chakraverty and
Devapriya Nayak, Traditional
Hindustani Music from Virginia."
The concert is part of the
homegrown concerts from the
Library of Congress series and
Chakraverty and Nayak will
perform traditional Hindustani
music featuring the Sarod and
Tabla. We hope to see you there.
So in conclusion please join
us and view the tabletop display
of the Library of Congress of
Samoan materials from the
Library of Congress collections.
And we also have takeaway
literature as well. Thank you so
much.
[Applause]