Honouring Asian Heritage Month by advocating for a Free Palestine.
A friendly reminder that Palestine is in Asia.
Hi friends,
Happy Asian Heritage Month!
I’m writing to you while waiting for the ferry en route to the sacred and unceded shíshálh and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh lands now colonially known as the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. I’m headed there to spend the next week facilitating workshops on healing and transformative justice with a partner organization. I'll share more about that some other time, but for now, I just really wanted to send a quick(ish) newsletter here to commemorate the special month of May that many who work in the diversity and inclusion space now know as Asian Heritage Month.
First and foremost, let me begin by saying that cultural or heritage or other commemorative months for different oppressed peoples have never sat well with me. Those of you who have been following my work for a while now should know this about me already. But for those who don’t, a quick explainer on my stance (or you can read the long version here)…
While the creation of these holidays may have been well-intentioned and a symbol for progress at the time, the reality is that it can largely be performative and more often than not, limits us to the bare minimum.
It encourages all of us to learn of these histories, heritages, cultures, and communities only during these specific times of the year instead of all year round as an integrated part of our educational curriculum and our collective consciousness. It’s lazy at best, and deeply harmful at worst.
It’s harmful because these cultural heritage months subtly reinforce the mentality of scarcity that plagues so many of us who are part of these marginalized communities.
It teaches us that X month is our month to speak out and stand up. That we must only take up space during those allotted weeks. No more, no less.
And heck, we should be grateful to even be given this time.
What I find to be the most harmful though is that this mentality of scarcity signals to us that we are in competition with one another. In June alone here in Canada, we celebrate Pride, we celebrate National Indigenous History Month, and in more recent years, we celebrate Filipino Heritage Month.
There are only so many months in the year and it feels like we must compete for airtime. We must jostle at each other for recognition of our very worth and value.
Even in these months that are meant to honour our communities and our contributions, we are still playing by the rules of someone else’s game. Remaining within the distinct lines that they created.
But listen, if we are going to accept the (flawed) premise of Asian Heritage Month, if we are going to play the game of clumping those of us from the largest continent on the earth into a single month to commemorate and tick off some DEI checklist, then let’s play!
By which I mean to say:
If your Asian Heritage Month “celebration” does not include Palestine, then it is meaningless. You do not get to pick and choose which of our communities you celebrate and honour, especially in the face of a genocide.
In case you need a reminder: PALESTINE IS IN ASIA.
And its cultural heritage and very existence is being systematically and violently erased. No more universities exist in Gaza. Art galleries, museums, and historical museums have all been destroyed. Artists and poets have been under attack and killed.
Even all the way here in Canada, the Ontario government has banned the keffiyeh, a cultural and traditional headdress of the Palestinian people. We’ve seen this erasure before and we know what it amounts to.
In the last few weeks, I have been uninvited from speaking engagements because of my activism and very vocal stance around Palestine. Organizations and other institutions claiming to stand for justice and equity and using Asian Heritage Month to prove it, have suddenly forgotten a crucial community that is a part of this heritage month.
I’ll have more words to speak about these cowardly and performative organizations, but for now, I just wanted to remind you of this:
If you want to truly honour Asian heritage this month, then talk about the cultural genocide that we are witnessing in real time right now. Otherwise, your efforts are meaningless.
To honour Asian Heritage Month is to advocate for a free and liberated Palestine. Full stop.
In loving solidarity,
Justine
Additional Resources:
Have you checked out Living Hyphen’s anti-racism resources? It’s a living resource and an ongoing work-in-progress that we create together and in community to dismantle white supremacy and work towards our shared liberation. Go through it yourself and share widely!
Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed is an absolute must-read and foundational text for understanding how systems of oppression function in our society and how we might break free from its bonds.
Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider is a collection of essays unraveling the power dynamics that lie within and between race, gender, and sex. It’s one of my absolute favourite books and you’ll likely find me quoting from this text often in these newsletters!
What’s Happening in My World:
Living Hyphen is hosting a couple of writing workshops in Vancouver this month. Explore our schedule and write with us!
I’m so thrilled to be a part of Toronto's first literary festival made for and by the Filipino/a/x community! I’ll be speaking on the importance of storytelling in solidarity with social movements, as well as facilitating a special writing workshop bringing together Filipino/a/x writers, storytellers, and word weavers. Save the date for May 24!
Join Living Hyphen and the Peel Art Gallery, Museum + Archives for a storytelling celebration on June 2nd from 2-4 p.m. as we share stories of finding community and home in Peel Region. RSVP now to join us.
I’ll be hosting Luminato’s Conversation Series from June 5-16! Check out the program and join us for the multi-arts festival that celebrates the energy of the city and connects people through memorable art experiences.
Support My Work:
If you enjoy reading this newsletter and find the work that I do valuable, you can support my work by supporting Living Hyphen, the community I founded to explore the experiences of those living in between cultures. You can do that through a number of ways:
Support racialized writers in financial need with a one-time contribution. Your contribution will go to our scholarship fund to offset the cost of a ticket to our writing workshops.
Make a monthly contribution on Patreon to support our ongoing programming.
Support storytellers from 60+ ethnic backgrounds, religions, and Indigenous nations from all across Turtle Island by reading our magazines or listen to our podcast!
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