<Begin Segment 19>

BY: So I probably should have asked you this earlier, but I'm interested in your children's identity. So first of all, tell me maybe the names and birthdates or ages of your children.

CH: Oh, I don't even know all their ages. [Laughs]

BY: Okay, well, the names anyway, the names.

CH: John. John Edward Cawthorn because they all have their dad's last name. He is the dean of the Wayne State Library and Library School. He was strongly influenced by his grandmother who was a librarian.

BY: Oh, right.

CH: So he grew up with a lot of books, being read to, having those stories dramatized. He had books memorized by the time he was three. Couldn't read, but a lot of kids were able to do that. Then Elise Hata Marie, and so she has my maiden name in her name, just because it flowed better, Hata Marie than Marie Hata, I don't know. I did the yelling at them when you're mad test. [Laughs] "Elise Hata Marie!" And then Alina Odrine Cawthorn. Elise is in Portland, she runs a daycare and she's been through a lot of different... social service work, I think. She's a very caring, loving person. And then Alina Odrine, she went to Cal Arts and got her degree in dance. So I have one that kind of followed the footsteps. And then I had a fourth child, not with the same husband, who's Kaliya Tomiko. So that was my dad's youngest sister who died when she was real young.

BY: So how do they identify?

CH: I think they identified more as being Black. In America, if you're dark, darker skin, but I also know that they are proud of being Japanese American, they knew my mother and father very well. They had that and I didn't have that so much. Because my mom, even though she was in Iowa, she never missed any dance recital, any performance, any graduation, she was just always here, so they knew her quite well. I think it's expressed in different ways in all of them. But I don't feel that there's a denial, but I also don't, they don't say that, "I'm Asian American," they say, "I'm African American and Asian." But now, because I raised them being "Afro Asian," that was the terminology that I felt was important because that's powerful. You're part of Africa and you're part of Asia, and that's more than half the world. So that's the terms that they grew up with, and always accepted that, and their family always knew that and accepted that. So I feel like it's a part of them.

BY: So another question. You talked about your belief that it's important for children to know about things that are happening in the world today that affect them around race and politics and all of that. So what are your feelings about this movement now to suppress the teaching of race and the history, U.S. history in the schools? I'm sure you have an opinion about that, I'd love to know what it is.

CH: So sometimes it feels like we've gone a long way, we've progressed a lot, and then other times it feels like we have gone backwards. I tend to not want to put a lot of energy into that as a fight, but more as energy into what are we creating and what are we telling, and as a museum, we are responsible for telling those stories. So I think it's a sad commentary on the democracy, not only in America but around the world. I think that this next generation has a lot of challenges, but I also think, number one, they're the largest generation, the Z generation, since the baby boomers. They're very action oriented, and I think that I always kind of reflect on The Prophet, you know that book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, this is how I raised my children. Your children are not your children, they belong to a world that you will never know. So we have to make the world the best we can while we're here. I can help with that, but they're going to carry on and they're going to make their choices So I have to live as fully in what I believe, and art is a choice, creative expression and healing and all the things that we need to be human, to be generous and compassionate, to be forgiving and to be really unconditional in our love for each other is what is important to me.

BY: Okay.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.