Collaborators will learn about the various items related to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history in the Smithsonian’s collections. Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) have played a significant role in American history at both the national and local levels. A movement to incorporate AANHPI history into curricula is growing nationwide. A growing number of states, including Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Wisconsin, have passed laws mandating the inclusion of AANHPI history in K-12 curricula, and other states, such as Ohio and Texas, continue to organize and push to incorporate AANHPI history into their classrooms.
In the summer of 2023, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific America Center (APAC), with support from the YURI Education Project, launched its first Co-Creation Initiative cohort to collaborate on creating new educational resources sharing local AANHPI histories for K-12 educators, students, and lifelong learners. The 2023-2024 cohort was made up of teams of educators and community organizations from Seattle, WA, Chicago, IL, Orange County, CA, Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX, and Houston, TX. (Learn more about the co-creators here!)
Our co-creative vision recognizes K-12 educators and community organizers as experts and places them at the forefront of resource creation, with APAC serving as conveners and advocates. We hosted a group of K-12 educators and community organizers from across the country for a three-day, in-person conference in Washington, DC, where they interacted with each other and with Smithsonian Museum staff specializing in the history of AANHPI.
After the team left Washington, DC, the group and APAC staff continued to meet online to refine and draft the resources. After months of drafting, the same educators and community organizations completed the co-creation of educational resources that highlighted local AANHPI stories that were important to them and their communities. Finished projects included a cookbook, postcards, a magazine, and a map.
The local and community focus of this effort is critical because for many K-12 students, AANHPI history is rarely taught, and when it is, it is only related to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the building of the U.S. Continental Railroad, or the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The resources we have created together help students understand that AANHPI history is rich and diverse, and exists everywhere, even in their own backyards.
APAC is pleased to share these local histories and co-created resources, all of which are available to download and print from APAC’s Co-Create Initiative webpage.
Austin
The Austin collaborators focused on Isamu Taniguchi, an Asian American who created a peace garden at Austin’s Zilker Botanical Garden after being interned with other Japanese Americans during World War II. The resource they created together is a one-page informational poster with an interactive zine project on the back. Educators and students can use this resource as a historical informational poster to highlight one of the lesser known community leaders in Austin history, or they can use the interactive zine aspect to encourage reflective and critical thinking in students, allowing them to creatively form connections from their own experiences to Taniguchi’s garden and the larger historical theme of belonging.
Chicago
Chicago Co-Creators has put the spotlight on women who have led, served, and strengthened Chicago’s Asian and Asian American communities. We interviewed community leaders about their work and the historical and political context that shaped them and their organizations. These interviews are paired with discussion questions that accompany an informational booklet. With this resource, educators and students can gain a deeper understanding of the specific needs and experiences of members of Chicago’s Asian and Asian American communities and connect those experiences to larger narratives of belonging, civic engagement, community activism, and intercultural solidarity.
Houston
The Houston collaborators focused on local stories of Asian immigrants and refugees living in the Gulfton neighborhood of Houston, Texas. They focused on how local people think about, imagine, and build new relationships with food as a way to connect with their traditions wherever they are. They collaborated on a booklet that includes seven recipes accompanied by personal stories from members of Houston’s refugee community, as well as printable activities that encourage readers to write out food memories and recipe cards. Educators and students can use this resource in a variety of settings, including writing personal stories and understanding fractions through recipes.
Orange County
The Orange County collaborators created two postcards and an accompanying lesson plan that highlight the impact Vietnamese Americans have had on their community. These postcards and lesson plan introduce audiences to the Vietnamese proverb “Ăn Quả Nhớ Kẻ Trồng Cây (When you eat the fruit, remember who planted the tree)” and the Asian Garden Mall “Phước Lộc Thọ”. The postcards encourage audiences to participate in intergenerational dialogue and honor the heritage of Orange County’s Vietnamese American community. Additionally, the resource helps teach students how to mail letters and postcards. The collaborative initiative enabled these collaborators to launch a Community History Postcard Project that includes other AANHPI communities across the country.
San Antonio
San Antonio collaborators created a map that highlights how Asian and Asian American communities, past and present, have shaped and continue to shape San Antonio. The map shows intersections of migration and community building through local landmarks, timelines, and census data. They hope this resource will empower young Asian residents of San Antonio to see themselves as an integral part of Texas and American history. The resource offers educators a variety of entry points for discussing local AANHPI history, including researching local landmarks and using census data to show trends over time.
Seattle
The Seattle Co-Creators developed two interactive digital cookbook zines, each created in collaboration with two influential and historic multi-ethnic Filipino families, the Corpuzes and the Jenkins. The zines present personal histories of how these families lived in Washington state through historical research, oral histories, family trees, family photos, and famous family recipes. The zines start conversations about how these family histories connect to larger conversations of world and American history. The cookbooks also include discussion questions and family trees and a family feast activity that allow students to explore and reflect on their own family history and understand how it connects to larger historical events.
Matthew Gaston, education director at Zilker Botanical Garden, and his colleague Heather De La Garza, operations manager at Zilker Botanical Garden, speak at the Academy of Asian American Studies in June 2024. Annie Nguyen
Our co-creators have already begun to utilize these resources. The Austin team’s Taniguchi Zine was featured and demonstrated at the Academy of Asian American Studies, a professional development training for K-12 teachers to focus on Asian American history in Texas and deepen understanding of Asian American history and experiences. Other co-creators plan to utilize the resources in upcoming educational trainings, curriculum development, and community outreach events in their respective regions. These resources only reveal a small part of the history of AANHPI locally, but there is still so much history to teach. That’s why APAC is excited to host another Co-Creation Initiative cohort in 2025-2026. Sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our website to stay up to date with APAC and our Co-Creation Initiative.
The resources were created in partnership with the Smithsonian Asia Pacific America Center’s National Education Program and Co-Creation Initiative, with past funding from Boeing and future support from the Panda Community Fund.
Editor’s note: The author presented this project with YURI Education Project collaborators Freda Lin and Cathlin Goulding, and classroom educator Annie Nguyen, at the Smithsonian National Education Summit in 2024. An archived recording is now available to listen.
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