Oral History
Hanna Shina, In His Own Words
In August 2023 the Chaldean Cultural Center published a 21-minute oral history film in which Hanna Shina tells the story of his life, from Telkaif to Detroit. Hanna Shina is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and the film — “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina” — is the fullest first-person record of his life that exists.
Key Facts
- Film
- “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina”
- Published
- August 3, 2023 by the Chaldean Cultural Center
- Length
- 21 minutes
- Born
- Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq
- Known for
- Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center
- Lives in
- West Bloomfield, Michigan
“Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina” — watch on YouTube.
About the Film
The film was published by the Chaldean Cultural Center on August 3, 2023 and runs 21 minutes. It belongs to the Center's Digital Storytelling series, an oral history project that records Chaldean lives in the subjects' own voices — the same preservation instinct that produced the Chaldean Cultural Center that Hanna Shina helped found, applied to people rather than objects.
What He Talks About
He begins where he began: Telkaif. He speaks of the school in which he studied and of walking the streets of the village, street by street — the geography of a boyhood recalled in detail decades later and half a world away. He recalls his participation in sports there, and the trophies that came with it.
Then comes America: the crossing, and the working life he built in Detroit, where he opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area. And finally the cultural center — why a museum mattered to him, and who he believes it is for. The written version of that arc is the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield, and the service that ran alongside it is described on his community service page.
In His Words
“The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country.”
“…and the school in which I studied, and I would walk around all streets of Telkaif, street by street.”
The man speaking in this film is also standing in the museum: a hologram in the Chaldean Village Life gallery portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. Both the film and the hologram are considered on the honors and recognition page, and common questions are answered on the Hanna Shina FAQ.
Related Pages
Biography of Hanna Shina
The full written account of his life, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield.
Telkaif, Iraq
The ancestral village where Hanna Shina was born and raised.
Chaldean Cultural Center
The museum Hanna Shina helped found, where he appears as a hologram.
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