From rangoli to road trips, the Indian American experience is one so unique and diverse that it takes many voices, or rather, pictures – to truly capture its essence. The South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) www.saada.org is a Philadelphia-based organization with the mission of preserving the many stories of South-Asian Americans. Their new project is meant to embrace the open road, share stories from across the nation, and ultimately celebrate freedom.
SAADA is launching a new project exploring the long and diverse history of South Asian American travel in the U.S. – and they need your help!
Below are submissions to SAADA’s Road Trips Project from Indian Americans from all over the world.
Radhika Bhalakrishnan with her family in Chicago, 1972
Manil Suri at Ocean Drive, 1994
Sumana Reddy at YellowStone National Park, 1964
Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, Niagara Falls, 1982
Chitra Divakaruni, Mt. Rainier, Washington State, 1984
During a time when immigrant lives and experiences are being devalued, SAADA’s Road Trips Project will help reframe a major American tradition by collecting images and stories from communities too often excluded from these narratives. By highlighting the journeys of South Asian Americans across the country, it will challenge a limited and harmful understanding of what American culture looks like. And they need your help to make it happen.
To contribute to this program and share your memories, click here.