Mending in Ongoing Crisis: Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Voices and COVID-19

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An A/P/A Voices: A COVID-19 Public Memory Project Event.

Presented by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.

Co-sponsored by Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), Nā ‘Ōiwi NYC, NYU Native Studies Forum, NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, and Institute for Public Knowledge. 

In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing violence, precarity, and insecurity in the US, with disproportionate repercussions for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander (NHPI) peoples. As part of the A/P/A Voices: A COVID-19 Public Memory Project, NHPI roundtable participants from Tongva territory (Southern California), Hawaiʻi, and Osage territory (Arkansas) share their experiences organizing with and responding to the needs of their communities during this time of intensifying crisis. Roundtable participants include community leaders and A/P/A Voices narrators Albious Latior (labor organizer), Tavae Samuelu (executive director, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities), and Kaina Quenga (founder, Nā ‘Ōiwi NYC). Project volunteer Crystal Mun-hye Baik (University of California, Riverside) moderates.

A/P/A Voices: A COVID-19 Public Memory Project was launched in Spring 2020 in collaboration with scholars, artists, and organizers Tomie Arai, Lena Sze, Vivian Truong, and Diane Wong and the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. This university-community partnership aims to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian/Pacific/American communities, and the organizing, mutual aid, and other efforts that emerged at the intersection of the resulting public health and economic crises, and a national racial reckoning and movement for Black lives. Thus far, over forty virtual interviews have been conducted with A/P/A essential workers, students, artists, and community organizers, and dozens of digital artifacts (e.g. flyers, zines, short films, photographs, and more) have been donated by individuals and organizations.