Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi
American Heritage Month

Festival

All are welcome to celebrate, learn, and be in community at the APIDA Festival 2024. The festival is a free event that includes dinner, a panel presentation, performances, local and community vendors, art, food, and more! This event includes fundraisers to support families displaced by the fires in Lahaina, Hawaii and a food drive to support the food pantries at WWU, WCC, NWIC, and BTC.

Thank you to all who attended this year’s APIDA Heritage Month events. More than 1,000 people joined in community at various events throughout the month, including 400 community members at the annual festival at Whatcom Community College. View the recording of the panel discussion at this year’s festival.

Transracial adoptees have unique experiences related to race and adoption that shape their identity development. Dr. Kim will talk about the ways transracial adoptees develop their individual and community racial and adoptee identities

JaeRan Kim, Ph.D., MSW, (she/hers) is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington at Tacoma, located on the traditional territories of the Puyallup peoples. Prior to completing her doctoral degree, she worked with foster and adopted children and families and with adults with disabilities in residential care. JaeRan’s research is focused on the wellbeing of adoptees, exploring disability, race, and transnational experiences for adoptees. As a public scholar, JaeRan is passionate about engaging in community-based projects; her blog Harlow’s Monkey, which focuses on the transracial/transnational adoptee experience, is one of the longest-running transracial adoption blogs in the United States. 

The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. Most of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. Please visit the Asian Pacific Heritage website to learn more about this month.

APIDA is a pan-ethnic classification that intentionally includes South Asians (Desi) as part of the community along with those in the community of East Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander heritage. APIDA represents a diverse community of more than 50 ethnic groups and includes all people of Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander ancestry who trace their origins to the countries, states, jurisdictions and/or the diasporic communities of these geographic regions.

APIDA history is an important part of the American experience, and we encourage our community to celebrate and learn about the achievements, hardships and sacrifices of APIDA people that deserve to be explored.

Thank you to Susan Puailiau Lindsey (Pua), for bringing life to the beautiful design for our APIDA Heritage Month graphics.

Aloha!  

Mahalo nui to all involved in this event. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a Graphic Designer in The Community Consortium for Cultural Recognition. The artwork for this event depicts the unity throughout the recognized cultures and throughout the planet. Our connected roots and collective futures; our ripple effect that spreads across our lands, our seas, and ourselves.  

I was born in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i and am blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest in Bellingham, Washington. My mom moved from Seattle to the Big Island for college and met my dad, and raised my brother and I in both places. We have been a bridge between the mainland and the Big Island all my life, traveling back and forth as often as possible.  

I share the aloha spirit in everything I create and I embrace the entrepreneurial spirit in a variety of business endeavors with the support of my ohana. One of those being Ink Drop Tattoo Shop; a creative space that my business partner, Zim, and I opened in 2016. I have been tattooing since 2011 and have been an artist all my life. I graduated from Whatcom Community College in 2012 with my Associates Degree in Visual Communications. Owning a Tattoo Shop right across the street from the community college was both unexpected and destined. It is so important to myself and the Ink Drop team to further our art and education to artists and entrepreneurs; creating a more beautiful future for everyone. Ho’oponopono; do right within yourself and to others.

Let’s create together,

Pua

These events were organized by a loving and caring community. Our gratitude goes to the Community Consortium for Cultural Recognitions for coordinating the APIDA Heritage Month Festival. Much appreciation to the Western Washington University’s APIDA Heritage Month Planning Committee.