Sharing Personal Stories from South Asian Communities

Located in Philadelphia, SAADA (the South Asian American Digital Archive) seeks to upend that traditional power structure by building an inclusive collection created for and by the community it represents. SAADA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to sharing and preserving the stories of South Asian American communities across the United States.

SAADA’s collections include oral history interviews, photographs, newspaper clippings, community publications, and digital materials, like preserved websites, emails, and PDFs. The archives span from the late 1600s all the way up to the present day. SAADA has specific resource hubs for educators and for families, but artists, scholars, and laypeople all use the archives for inspiration and information. Beyond hosting individual contributions from members, SAADA has also published a book of South Asian American history, created a fellowship program, and developed an all-original playlist of songs by South Asian American artists.

Listen to the playlist

Our conversation with Samip Mallick, executive director of the organization, explores the real impact a community-led archive can have on individuals and on our understanding of the American story. 

Samip Mallick: We started SAADA in 2008. Our goal was to preserve and share stories of South Asian Americans, a community of more than 5.4 million, that has historically been excluded and overlooked from the American story. It's a community that I’m part of, and I’ve always felt personally impacted not seeing myself reflected in the American story despite being born and brought up in this country. It made me feel disconnected from the country that I call my own.  

SAADA has worked to create a space of belonging for South Asian Americans and ensure that members of our community see that their stories are fundamentally part of the American story.

SM: Philadelphia is home to about 150,000 South Asians. It’s such a perfect place to be based for the work that we do, because for many, it’s one of the most historic parts of the American republic. To be able to help rewrite the American story from Philadelphia feels particularly poignant and powerful.  

We have a walking tour of Philadelphia called Revolution Remix that highlights stories of South Asian Americans in historical spaces from the 1780s all the way up to the present day.  

When people finish the walking tour, they see the city in a completely new light. Ultimately that’s our goal: for all people to see the story of our country as one that’s much more diverse than they perhaps even recognize.  

SM: It’s really about questioning who typically has the power in the archival process. That power has typically been outside of communities that are being documented or whose stories are being documented. SAADA’s work is for and with the South Asian American community. Members of our community are the ones who work collaboratively with SAADA to ensure that their stories are preserved and shared. The primary audience for our work are members of our communities themselves.

And for myself, I can speak personally how incredibly transformative it is to begin to realize the ways that you and your community and you are part of this place that we now inhabit. It’s so powerful to be able to share that with others within our community. So that is fundamentally unique to what community-based archives do. It’s not about anyone else. It’s about us and it’s about our stories, and it’s about us working together.  

SM: Yes, in fact, the vast majority of materials inside are coming from people’s homes and personal collections. These materials are critically important to our community; and, I would say that without SAADA’s intervention, they would never be seen by the public. Not only because traditional archives have typically not valued the stories of marginalized communities, but because they’re so personal and because trust is so integral to the work that we do. Having the trust of our community is what enables and allows us to even do this work in the first place.

SM: Oral histories are such an important methodology for sharing stories that are not found in other formats. For communities like ours that have been traditionally not included in archives, one of the really important tools that we have is recording our own stories, our own memories. There are hundreds of oral histories in SAADA now. Each of them is a reflection of a story that’s not captured anywhere else. It’s an incredible moment in time that we’re able to preserve and share.  

That’s what makes the work that SAADA does so special: it creates this space for our community to feel reflected and to feel represented, but even more so, it’s a space that they feel is theirs. 

SM: Our work at SAADA has never been limited by our vision or by our dreams for our community. It’s always been limited by our capacity. For SAADA’s initial decade, I was the sole staff member for the organization. Mellon’s investment has allowed us to begin growing. We planted these seeds fifteen years ago, and it’s just so exciting to see the ways that the organization is now blossoming.  

SM: One of the most consistent themes that I’ve discovered, as I learned more about South Asian American history myself, is how important it is for marginalized communities to work together, and how central it has been to the progress our communities have made in this world.  

There are so many important connections and collaborations and solidarities between communities of color in this country, and that's something that SAADA really seeks to highlight and to center in our work. Not just the voices of our community, but the ways that all of our communities have worked together to create a more just and inclusive world.