Legacies of War Refugee Nation Twin Cities: 10 Years Later
This October marked a quiet milestone for the Lao community in Minnesota, the 10th anniversary since the historic Legacies of War Refugee Nation Twin Cities exhibit in Minneapolis. The exhibition brought together teachers, artists, community builders, and families to understand Lao refugees’ experience, the poorly-understood Secret War in Laos, and the war’s long-term consequences. This exhibit was a remarkable collaboration between the Lao community, Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota, local Lao artists, the Lao Student Association of Minnesota, Intermedia Arts, Pangea World Theater, TeAda Productions, and the advocacy organization Legacies of War. Many of the Lao community’s projects and successes over the last decade can be traced to lessons learned from this exhibit. In the 20th century, Laos had more bombs dropped on it than any nation during World War 2. More than two million tons of unexploded ordnance were dropped on Laos from 1964-1973 in violation of the Geneva Accords. An estimated 30% of the ordnances did not explode on impact, thus contaminating over 30% of Laos’s entirety with deadly bombs, some as small as a tennis …
