The Wake

October 14 marks the unveiling of a new exhibit at Andersen Library that documents the Somali immigrant experience in the Twin Cities. “As I See It: Documentary Images By Students at Ubah Medical Academy” brings together the world-class research of the Immigration History Research Center (IRHC) and the communities that the organization hopes to preserve in its archive collections.
Various Twin Cities organizations, the Ubah Medical Academy and the Immigration History Research Center’s Children’s Literature Research collections coordinated the exhibit, inspired by photos and text by Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge.

Abdi Roble, himself a member of the Somali Diaspora, initiated the Somali Documentary Project in 2003 to allow him to document his own history and the history of his people. Roble’s work involved more than photography, according to Haven Hawley, acting director and program director of the Immigration History Research Center.

“He has been able to build trust with the people he is photographing, because he is not just taking a picture, and the photographs are more than art,” Hawley says. “They are literally a snapshot of a relationship between the photographer and the person being photographed, a connection to that person’s culture and a window to that person’s experience.”

“As I See It: Documentary Images By Students at Ubah Medical Academy” is inspired by Roble’s vision of documenting the Somali Diaspora by allowing the students at Ubah to document their own experiences as a diasporic community living in the Twin Cities. “As I See It” is an Arts Midwest production focusing on Somali children’s literature and video presentations, coordinated by Kirsten Rome of Shooting Stars, a youth group associated with the Sheridan Neighborhood organization. Andy Wilhide, a grad student in the University History Department, coordinated the videos produced by the community youth and the Minnesota Historical Society.

Although the IHRC has created exhibits before, this is the first time that an immigrant community has had the chance to document themselves in Andersen Library. Haven Hawley believes that this exhibit is consistent with the vision of the research center.

She says, “We found that their work fit really well with the IHRC’s ongoing work to help immigrant communities document themselves. Refugees and many other immigrants come to the United States with very few things that record their past. We hope that the IHRC can work with a variety of people as they create the historical materials that institutions like the IHRC and Minnesota Historical Society will be able to preserve for the future.

“We need to learn from how communities use voices that are authentic to their cultural traditions to talk about themselves,” Hawley continues. “Otherwise we will miss out on recognizing that projects like this are the documents of the future.”

Rutledge and Roble are involved with other a few other events at the University in the coming months. Their own exhibit at the Weisman Art Museum opens on June 20, 2009 and runs through Sept. 13, 2009. Roble and Rutledge will also release their book, A Journey Away, with University of Minnesota Press later this month.