From January 27th through May 19th, 2019, SAAPRI’s groundbreaking oral history project, the Memories and Milestones exhibit, will be featured at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in their upcoming exhibit, From the Subcontinent to the Prairie: Stories of Immigration and Identity. The exhibit aims to shed light on the diverse experiences of South Asians in America and will be open to the public from January 27th through May 19th, 2019.
Memories and Milestones has been on display at numerous exhibits around Illinois since its completion in 2009. The project is dedicated to recording, documenting, and preserving the journeys of South Asians who came to Illinois between 1945 and 1965. SAAPRI’s efforts brought together a pioneering group of immigrants whose voices may have otherwise been lost to history as one of the great untold stories of American immigration.
We are proud to collaborate with the Spurlock Museum to bring Memories and Milestones to new audiences. SAAPRI’s oral history exhibit has been the first attempt to document the history of South Asian immigration to Illinois in the pre-civil rights era. We appreciate learning from the experiences of generations before us as we tackle the challenges facing our community today.
Dhara Puvar, Executive Director of SAAPRI
SAAPRI would like to thank the National Indo-American Museum (NIAM) for making possible the inclusion of Memories and Milestones in Spurlock’s upcoming exhibit, which features NIAM’s display The Indian American Experience in Chicago.