Celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month

Cultural Calendar

May 2, 2025

Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawai’ian Heritage Month

May has arrived, bringing with it the annual opportunity to celebrate the richness and history of Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawai’ian Heritage Month, when we recognize the strength, contributions, and legacies of Asian Americans, Native Hawai’ians, Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) who have helped to build and unite this country in each successive generation. “AANHPI” is an umbrella term referring to a vast and diverse group of people, ranging from the indigenous people of Hawai’i, all of Pasifika, and all of Asia. By some estimates, 60 percent of the world’s population lives in Asia or the Pacific.

The term “Asian/Pacific” is broad, encompassing all of the diverse Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

We celebrate their accomplishments in May, to both commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, as well as to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, and the unheralded Chinese immigrant workers who first laid the tracks that connected a nation.

AANHPI people are deeply rooted in the history of the United States and contribute daily to a more just and inclusive society in countless rich and diverse ways. They have served in politics with distinction, fought for gender and racial justice in education, courageously demanded justice for indigenous people and the environment, and organized to create better working conditions for all. AANHPI people have also created impactful and beautiful art, become leading fashion icons, and made people laugh and think.

Here in 2025, it has never been more important to make a distinction and honor the legacies, histories, and contributions of each of these groups, and to do so including the Pasifika and Native Hawai’ian people who have, in the past, been left out of our celebrations of AAPI/NH month.

Sadly, Asian Americans continue to experience racism, prejudice, and hate crimes, which increased to an alarming level in the U.S. during the pandemic. To counteract this perpetration of hate against Asian community members, let us instead uplift the histories of Asians in the U.S., making sure to include their experiences of racism, the legacy of inequitable immigration policies, and most importantly, the long-standing legacy of Asian antiracist advocacy. We strongly encourage learning the story of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs, to name only a few of the many Asian people in the US who have refuted anti-Black racism, rejected the “model minority” status imposed on them, and stood in solidarity with BIPOC communities of color.

Learn more at https://asianpacificheritage.gov/.

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