Digital Storytelling
“Stories are the oldest, most primordial meeting ground in human experience. Their allure will often provide the most effective means of overcoming otherness, of forming a new collectivity based on the shared story.”
Digital stories are 3-5 minute, first-person narratives about personal, lived experience. Digital storytelling has been found to be a powerful tool for reflection, meaning-making, empowerment, and learning. I had seen digital stories before, but I didn’t begin to explore it as a path toward language reclamation, revalorization, and revitalization until early 2022 after reading an article titled “Crafting an Agentive Self: Case Studies of Digital Storytelling.” I was intrigued with how many layers of story and meaning multimedia and multimodal storytelling can provide. Since then, I’ve wondered what it can do for language efforts in the Hmong community. Watch the videos below and let me know what you think.
IMPORTANT: These videos are my personal videos hosted on YouTube. They are here for your personal viewing and are not meant to be shared publicly. If you wish to use them in a public space such as a classroom or a workshop, please ask for permission first. You can contact me at pa@bypavue.com.
“Kev Ua Paj Ntab” is a video I wasn’t quite sure how to make. In fact, at one point after writing it, I had considered not creating it at all. It felt strange to read it out loud, like it wasn’t natural, but the more I read it, the more I realized that it wasn’t natural because I wasn’t used to creating in Hmong. So that encouraged me to work on it even more.
I had been thinking about my name for a long time, had thought about writing a poem, had even put some words on paper. Then during the summer of 2022, I had the chance to work present at a Refugee Teaching Institute at UC Merced, and in the process of putting together the presentation, my co-presenter introduced me to Mai Neng Vang’s poem (read by the poet). The power of her poem encouraged me to create this video about my own name.
This is my first “official” digital story that I created with StoryCenter. I wasn’t sure what to write about, so I just let my heart guide me, and it led me to a moment next to the Pacific Ocean. It led me to a Hmong folktale about an orphan and a princess and the magic of storytelling.
Interested in bringing digital storytelling to your class, community, or group?
Contact me at pa@bypavue.com, and let’s chat.