Local

New video storytelling campaign aims to lift up AAPI voices

SEATTLE — May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and a new grassroots awareness campaign has been launched that aims at lifting up AAPI voices.

The video storytelling campaign, called “Our Stories Are Your Stories,” showcases the diversity of the AAPI community. And it wants to hear from other members of the community.

“We know members of the AAPI community are hurting right now. They’re feeling isolated, targeted, and afraid. And we wanted to do something to uplift them and make them feel they’re supported,” said Mari Horita, one of the AAPI women behind the campaign.

“I think we also wanted to do some kind of call to action,” said Mimi Gan, another AAPI woman serving on the volunteer executive team.

Both Horita and Gan said they hope to heal the AAPI community and encourage solidarity.

“If we can use this, not just for AAPIs to bring us together but for us to know that we should support each other. We should support other communities,” Gan added.

The campaign features prominent voices like former Seahawks Doug Baldwin who identifies as Black and Filipino.

“I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and grandfather on my mom’s side. I got all the traditional food, the lumpia, the pancit, chicken adobo. It’s a huge part of who I am today for sure,” Baldwin shares in the video.

The campaign shines a light on all the different experiences that make up the AAPI community, with representation from over 50 countries and different languages, customs and cultures.

“We hope people will develop a greater sense of connection and empathy and, frankly, will be a kinder society to each other is the ultimate goal,” Horita said.

You can share your stories by recording a video of yourself, sharing it on social media and tagging @OurStoriesAreYourStories, @winglukemuseum, and #OSAYS.

These stories will also live on forever as part of the Wing Luke Museum’s Oral Histories archive.

For more information, click here: https://www.ourstoriesareyourstories.com/.