New Woonsocket Exhibit Highlights Lao Americans’ Story in Rhode Island
"The Heart of Wattayai" photo exhibit is told through one grandmother's eyes.
Vimala Phongsavanh’s parents, Kongdeuane and Syphanh Phongsavanh, along with her aunt, Ammanoroth Inthavong, and older sister, Sengdara Sengsavang, at the Nong Khai refugee camp in 1980. Photography courtesy of Vimala Phongsavanh
Vimala Phongsavanh grew up in Woonsocket, surrounded by the Lao community. Her own parents fled civil unrest in their home country in 1981 and moved to the mill neighborhood of Fairmount, finding work in the city’s still-bustling industrial factories.
Phongsavanh with her grandmother around 1990. Photography courtesy of Vimala Phongsavanh
“The three-tenant housing in Fairmount, a lot of them were Lao families,” Phongsavanh recalls. “I always knew, I just didn’t know how many there were.”
Her grandmother, Khamhoth Phongsavanh, in Rhode Island around 1990. Photography courtesy of Vimala Phongsavanh
Today, Phongsavanh works as the managing director of coalition mobilization for the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. It’s a job that brings her in contact with communities of Asian descent throughout the country, but she’s always wanted to tell the story of the Lao diaspora in her own hometown.
“I’ve always been so curious about my own history,” she says. “How did I end up in Woonsocket? How did I end up born in Landmark hospital? What were the choices behind that?”
That story will be told in “The Heart of Wattayai,” a new photo exhibit opening Jan. 9 at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket. Centered around the life of Phongsavanh’s grandmother, Khamhoth Phongsavanh, the exhibit tells the story of the Lao families who endured war and displacement in their home country before rebuilding a new life in Rhode Island.
“With my grandmother, I want to tell the story of people who have been forgotten. Especially our elders who have lived through two, three wars,” she says.
The Center for Southeast Asians estimates that 1,430 Lao people lived in Woonsocket as of 2010, the highest concentration of any municipality in the state. Much of that movement historically was a result of refugee policies in the wake of the Secret War in Laos, a bombing campaign by the United States that paralleled the war in neighboring Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos, making it the most bombed country in the world per capita.
Even after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Southeast Asia in 1973 and the end of the Laotian Civil War two years later, the country continued to face unrest. Phongsavanh’s step-grandfather was interned in a communist reeducation camp between 1975 and 1989. In the early 1980s, her grandmother encouraged Phongsavanh’s parents, along with her aunts and uncles, to flee. One of her grandmother’s children went to France, three went to America, and another stayed behind in Laos.
A baci in the 1980s. Photography courtesy of Vimala Phongsavanh
Phongsavanh’s grandmother, uncle, mother and aunt in 1968. Photography courtesy of Vimala Phongsavanh
“I’ve just always been curious about my grandmother and her dreams and what she thought about watching four of her kids leave to refugee camps,” Phongsavanh says.
Later, after her step-grandfather’s release, he and her grandmother moved to America for several years. Though they eventually returned to Laos, Phongsavanh says those years were an important time for her to get to know the matriarch whose choices resulted in the life she leads today. Since then, she’s traveled to Laos several times to visit her family’s home neighborhood of Wattayai.
“When I go back, people are always telling me about my grandmother and how she supported them,” she says. “She took in orphans. She held community together during times of upheaval even when she was going through a lot. She was a center of that community.”
The exhibit, which features photographs and objects of her grandmother and family life, is supported by a $2,000 grant from Rhode Island Humanities. Phongsavanh says she was inspired to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Southeast Asian wars. The exhibit is also a response to the shift in U.S. immigration policy, with many refugees — including those who traveled from Laos in the 1980s — now facing detainment and deportation. Just as in the case of her grandmother, she says, those realities weigh heavily on Lao women, who are often left to hold everything together when male family members are deported.
“I want [viewers] to feel empathy and more of an understanding of a community they might not know about,” she says.
The local Lao community wins a prize at Woonsocket’s Autumnfest parade in 1982. Photography courtesy of Vimala Phongsavanh
The exhibit opening on Jan. 9 will feature a baci, a Lao blessing ceremony used to commemorate special events. On Jan. 25, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Phongsavanh will speak about the exhibit at the museum as part of the Valley Talk lecture series. The exhibit remains open through Feb. 27. Museum of Work and Culture, 42 South Main St., Woonsocket, 769-9675, rihs.org/locations/museum-of-work-culture
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About Lauren Clem
Photograph by Meaghan Susi
Lauren Clem contributes in-depth features to the magazine and blogs about trending events and happenings. She edits the magazine’s long-running Reporter column and oversees the Nostalgia and Q&A sections, in addition to authoring the On Tap newsletter chronicling the state’s craft beverage industry. She also oversees the Bannister Awards, the magazine’s annual awards program recognizing individuals who promote diversity and advance equity in Rhode Island. A former newspaper writer, she especially enjoys reporting on the environment and the outdoors. She is a native of Woonsocket and attended Villanova University. Her work has been recognized by the Rhode Island Press Association and the New England Newspaper and Press Association.
