Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month provides an opportunity to teach children about the tremendous contributions Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have made in the United States during past and present times.
At Connecticut Children’s, we honor AANHPI Heritage Month with our team members, patients and their families by displaying signage in our hospital, providing educational resources to team members, sharing team member profiles, and much more. We also encourage families to try out new activities to better understand and appreciate the contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in our country.
Here are some ideas to consider during AANHPI Heritage Month and all year long:
- Take children on a virtual visit to the National Park Services Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage website. The site features exhibits on a variety of destinations that are preserved in our nation’s parks, memorials and historic sites. Learn more!
- Read children’s books written by authors or illustrated by artists who are AANHPI. To get you started, PBS.org has a list of children’s books that honor AANHPI Heritage Month. So does the School Library Journal and Reading Rockets.
- Learn about traditional AANHPI music and instruments. YouTube offers a great way to be inspired by the beautiful music of AANHPI cultures. Listen to traditional Hmong singing and flute playing here and listen to Japanese taiko drums here.
- For additional ideas, take a look at this article on Connecticut Children’s Growing Healthy Blog, which offers ideas for how you can honor the month with kids – from arts and crafts, to watching videos, to taking a virtual vacation.
And here’s some background information on Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Congress established the awareness month in May to honor the first Japanese immigrants who arrived in the United States in May 1943 and to mark the completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869, which was built largely by Chinese immigrants. According to the Library of Congress, the AANHPI region includes:
- the Asian continent
- 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
- Polynesia: New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island