APALA Archives
The APALA Archives is a place to share our storied history and inspire today’s activists to continue the fight for economic and social justice in our AANHPI communities and within organized labor. Our goal is to make our history accessible through the sharing of core documents and images from our history and to create a system for adding to our growing collection. Our online Archives are digital, but we also will direct those interested to physical collections which are held in various university libraries across the country.
Our Archives includes a wish list of items missing from our collection which you may have in your possession. This list will be updated frequently.
The collection you are seeing is just the start – we will be adding more items as we properly catalog and identify them for your viewing. To keep up with the latest news on our Archives, join our mailing list here.
To support our Archives, we are fundraising with our community. We've set the initial goal of $18,000 for the eighteen biennial conventions we have done so far. We appreciate all donations, at any level. You can donate by clicking the button below.
Our Archives includes a wish list of items missing from our collection which you may have in your possession. This list will be updated frequently.
The collection you are seeing is just the start – we will be adding more items as we properly catalog and identify them for your viewing. To keep up with the latest news on our Archives, join our mailing list here.
To support our Archives, we are fundraising with our community. We've set the initial goal of $18,000 for the eighteen biennial conventions we have done so far. We appreciate all donations, at any level. You can donate by clicking the button below.
APALA First Elected Officers, 1992
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Continue reading below to learn more about our APALA archives.
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Digitized Material
Help Fund Our Archives
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We thank NEA (National Education Association) for making a generous contribution to start our project, but we also look to our APALA family to help sustain this collection and digitize the many documents from our past.
To support our Archives, we are fundraising with our community. We've set the initial goal of $18,000 for the eighteen biennial conventions we have done so far. We appreciate all donations, at any level. You can donate by clicking the button below. The donations will help cover the cost of our archivist and costs for cataloguing and digitizing materials. Please join us in helping to preserve our amazing history! |
APALA Steering Committee
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What We Are Seeking
We are currently seeking the following materials:
If you have originals or copies of the materials, you can add them to our archives by emailing us at [email protected].
- Chapter Charters: Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Orange County, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Texas and Washington DC
If you have originals or copies of the materials, you can add them to our archives by emailing us at [email protected].
How to Donate Items to Our Archives
APALA San Francisco member, Norm Ten, donates hist vest and buttons at the 2025 APALA Convention.
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We are currently building our collection and have limited physical space for items. Therefore, we are asking anyone interested in donating to our collection to first contact us at [email protected] and let us know what items you have in your possession. We are most interested in:
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How to Make a Bequeathal to APALA
If you are interested in making a bequeathal to APALA, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you so much for thinking of us in your legacy.
How to Preserve Your APALA Chapter's History
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There is no time like now to start preserving your chapter’s history. As time goes by, memories and written records fade or are lost. Here are some tips for starting your chapter archives:
After you have done some foundational research, a good next step is to capture the chapter’s history through capturing histories. |
New York Chapter Chinatown Walking Tour, 2022
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How to Capture an Oral History
Oral histories are defined as facilitated dialogue where a narrator is asked to recount important historical events within a community. Oral histories seek an in-depth account of personal experience and reflections, with sufficient time allowed for the narrators to give their story the fullness they desire.
Here are some basic interviewing tips:
Beyond recording oral histories to capture your chapter’s history, your chapter’s history can be captured proactively and retroactively. In a proactive sense, consider archives and legacy as your chapter is creating its history. For example, meeting minutes, email correspondence, and chapter events are archival material. Photographs from chapter events captured on members' smartphones are also archival material. What can be done to backup and preserve that history so it can be accessible well into the future? In a retroactive sense, your chapter’s history can be captured through collecting chapter materials that exist in offices, union halls, storage units, garages, etc. When capturing your chapter’s history, think about what types of material your chapter would like to capture? Where will it be stored so it is preserved? How will it be made accessible? Also consider what your chapter needs to better capture its history?
Here are some basic interviewing tips:
- Choose a quiet location with minimal background noise and distractions. An oral history interview can be fifteen minutes to several hours – it is all up to the subjects of the interview.
- Location matters, and if possible, should be in a place that is significant to the narrator.
- Get evidence of the location in the shot. The importance of seeing memories appearing across their faces.
- Interviewer should record a lead-in: names of narrator and interviewer, full date (day, month, year). Identifying information can also be added in an edit as a chyron.
- Work to achieve a balance between project objectives and perspectives of their narrators.
- Be prepared to extend the inquiry beyond the specific focus of the project to allow the narrator to freely define what is relevant.
- Mutually strive to record candid information of lasting value to future audiences.
- Ask open ended questions: What was the mindset when you decided you wanted to start a chapter? What were those initial conversations like? What was the first action of the chapter and how did it make everyone feel?
- Regardless of video and lighting, all interviews must have excellent sound.
Beyond recording oral histories to capture your chapter’s history, your chapter’s history can be captured proactively and retroactively. In a proactive sense, consider archives and legacy as your chapter is creating its history. For example, meeting minutes, email correspondence, and chapter events are archival material. Photographs from chapter events captured on members' smartphones are also archival material. What can be done to backup and preserve that history so it can be accessible well into the future? In a retroactive sense, your chapter’s history can be captured through collecting chapter materials that exist in offices, union halls, storage units, garages, etc. When capturing your chapter’s history, think about what types of material your chapter would like to capture? Where will it be stored so it is preserved? How will it be made accessible? Also consider what your chapter needs to better capture its history?