QHIA DAB NEEG ArCHIVE
on Screen / on air
celebrating the role of hmong storytellers in television
Qhia Dab Neeg Film Festival’s second community screening turned the spotlight on television and the importance of Hmong representation on screen. The showcase included the following excerpts from six pivotal media outlets & journalists and included a powerful conversation on how Hmong voices are shaping visibility both on air and in our communities.
Keev Koom SIAB / circa 1992
Kev Koom Siab (“Path to Unity”) was the first Hmong-language public affairs television program broadcast on U.S. television. The series was produced in the Twin Cities through a collaboration involving Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) and Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), and aired from 1992 to approximately 2003–2004.
The program was created to provide Hmong-language news, public affairs discussions, health education, cultural programming, and community information for Minnesota’s rapidly growing Hmong refugee and immigrant population during the 1990s. It became a major platform for Hmong representation in regional media at a time when very little Hmong-language broadcasting existed in the United States.
Minnesota State Senator Foung Hawj is widely credited as one of the producers and early leaders of the program before entering politics. The show also helped launch and support early Hmong journalists, media makers, and public voices in Minnesota television. Community media pioneer Kangyee Vang served as part of the production crew during the mid-1990s.
Beyond news coverage, Kev Koom Siab became an important public education tool. The program partnered with organizations such as the Hmong Health Care Professionals Coalition to broadcast health information in Hmong, with later surveys reporting significant community reach and impact.
Today, surviving episodes and materials from the program are preserved through the Hmong Archives at Concordia University, Saint Paul and are recognized as a foundational part of Hmong American media history.
Foung Hawj / producer - 1992 to 2003
Foung Hawj played a foundational role in the development of Hmong community television in Minnesota and is widely recognized as a pioneer of Hmong-language media in the United States.
After graduating from the University of Kansas with degrees in media arts and computer science, Hawj moved to Minnesota in 1990 after seeing a job posting for a producer of a new Hmong television program called Kev Koom Siab (“Path to Unity”). He left a higher-paying programming job to help build what became the first Hmong-language public affairs television program broadcast in the United States.
As producer and host of Kev Koom Siab, Hawj helped create a media platform that brought Hmong-language news, interviews, health information, civic education, cultural programming, and community storytelling to thousands of Hmong viewers across Minnesota during the 1990s. The show aired through Twin Cities Public Television and Saint Paul Neighborhood Network from 1992 to 2003.
Community accounts describe Hawj as one of the most visible Hmong media figures of the era. Before Hmong newspapers, radio stations, and digital platforms became widespread, Kev Koom Siab served as a central source of information and representation for Hmong communities adapting to life in the United States. Hawj’s work helped normalize Hmong presence on television while creating opportunities for early Hmong journalists, videographers, producers, and storytellers.
His contributions extended beyond television production. Hawj later founded the multimedia company Digital Motion LLC and co-founded several civic and cultural organizations, including the Hmong-American DFL Caucus and the Minnesota Hmong Chamber of Commerce.
Today, Kev Koom Siab is recognized as a landmark achievement in Hmong American media history, with archived materials preserved through Hmong archival collections in Minnesota
ZouA Vang / Broadcaster KSTP / circa 1998
Zoua Vang is recognized as one of the first Hmong American television reporters working in mainstream U.S. broadcast news. She earned degrees in Political Science and Communications from Gustavus Adolphus College. A U.S. Civil Rights Commission report references her as a “local Hmong reporter” who transitioned into television news in Fresno, noting that Minnesota stations created special trainee pathways during a period when Hmong representation in television news was extremely limited. Beginning her career of KSTP, a local Saint Paul television network, she became one of “the first television reporter of Hmong origin in mainstream media in the U.S.” and later worked in communications and public policy leadership. “ (Fresno CA State profile).
She received Associated Press awards for documentary work and later worked as a communications consultant and public affairs adviser.
Zhoua / FBI Raid
HMONG TV / circa 2023
Chao Pao Vang & Hlub Lis