Lori Townsend: Alaskans are celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May.

Fishery work brought many here beginning in the 1800s.

Unknown: I did not know any of this history while I was here.

I only learned it after I retired six years ago, I started studying the history of the canneries.

Lori Townsend: Today Alaskans of Asian and Pacific Island descent are an integral part of the state's communities and culture and are thriving in local business, government and education.

We'll take a look back and discuss the future right now on Alaska Insight.

Asian immigrants have a long history here.

The Chinese immigrants who arrived in Alaska before statehood helped grow Alaska's wild salmon industry into the international multibillion dollar economy that it is today.

Alaska Public Media's Jeff Chen has the story.

Unknown: When school let out each summer, Fred Wong, who worked as a teacher would travel to Alaska to work in the salmon canning industry.

One season in Ketchikan and 53 seasons on Kodiak Island.

From 1953 when he was a high school student until 2008, at the age of 73.

That's a record for any cannery worker.

It's around the clock.

Eat, sleep, go to work.

Well, I grew up in Portland, Oregon's Chinatown.

I'm ABC -- American Born Chinese.

I'm a veteran, as a matter of fact.

He worked his way up the ranks at the Alitak cannery from fi That dock was is cosmopolitan as, as Los Angeles.

You look at h processor to cannery fo eman, at a time when there we en't many Chinese cannery wo kers.

But just a few decades ea lier, roughly 3,000-5000 Chine e people worked in Alask 's canneries each year, repre enting a significant porti n of the workforce.

Econo ic and political condi ions in China in the 1800s led t ousands of people to journey a ross the Pacific.

By the 1870s c mmercial salmon fisheries e erged and Chinese contractors w uld pack boats, nicknamed "hell hips", with laborers bound for West Coast and Alaska canneries They'd work the season w th laborers from around the wor d, and also Indigenous to Alas one cannery and it just telescopes out and you have world history and all of 19th century, 20th century history going on right there.

Katie Ringsmuth, also a former cannery worker, is the director of the NN Cannery History Project 1878-1879, they're bringing up a Chinese workforce, the Chinese workers were there from the very beginning.

They're moving across, they're going from Southeast to Cook Inlet, right down to the Kenai.

Then they're going to Kodiak.

And then ultimately, they're in Bristol Bay by 1883.

And they're bringing, importing the Chinese laborers to do every element of that work.

Across the country, competition for jobs led to anti Chinese racism.

And that's when the nation's first major race-based discriminatory immigration law was passed.

Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.

And then they make it permanent 10 years later.

And so all of these Chinese have the choice of either staying or going home and no one can come back in.

In 1903, as Chinese people were barred from entering the US, they were being replaced by a machine.

The invention of the iron chink was a major advance.

This head chopping was once done by Chinese labor.

You know, back in 1900, the Chinese were nothing.

That's why they called it that.

As the existing Chinese cannery workers aged out, they were replaced by Mexican, Puerto Rican, Black, Japanese, Pacific Islander and Filipino laborers, each with their own unique story of arrival to the American West and North.

The bunkhouse and graveyard at the Diamond and NN cannery and South Naknek are some of the few indicators that Chinese laborers were once here.

What is lacking is some of the personal stories about Chinese workers.

In the 70s James Chiao, his twin brother Philip and a couple other international students from Taiwan, landed their first cannery job in Alaska.

I did not know any of this history while I was here.

I only learned it after I retired six years ago when I started studying the history of the canneries.

Now on their website.

Ciao brothers have helped documents some of the stories of Chinese cannery workers, including Fred Wong's story, Every group come to America has it's own struggle.

It is when we put all these tough stories together, it became the American story.

So I think if we all understand this situation, I think we'll be able to tolerate each other better.

And hopefully, you know, future you know, to prevent the type of anti-Chinese, anti-Asian, or those type of extreme violence in the future.

James Chiao, Fred Wong and Katie Ringsmuth, each aim to share the stories of the essential workers that put food on the table and to this day, bring Alaska's wild salmon to the rest of the world.

I like coho better, I just heard from last night!

For Alaska Public Media, I'm Jeff Chen.

Lori Townsend: Together, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up the third largest ethnic group in our state, according to 2020 census data.

Joining me to describe the rich history and outlook for the future is Lucy Hansen.

Lucy is the president of the Polynesian Association of Alaska.

Edric Carrillo is the president of the Filipino Community Inc. in Juneau, and Kengo Nagaoka is community organizer in Anchorage.

Thanks, all of you for being with us this evening.

So nice to have you all with me and here.

And you know, before I start asking some questions, I wondered if any of you after seeing that story, have any thoughts or kind of reflections about it and where the country was, at that time, especially some of that historical footage, that even for me, not of Asian descent was sort of like a gut punch listening to some of that, and, and thinking about those kinds of racist policies that were put in place by Congress, the Exclusion Act.

Any thoughts that you'd like to share about looking at some of that?

And and thinking about how that is different today?

Or what isn't different today?

Unknown: I could speak to that a little bit.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you for having us on here.

And thank you for to Jeff Chen for highlighting this story.

Growing up in Fairbanks, I also did not grow up learning about the history of you know, Asian and Pacific Islander people here.

And it's just now that I'm sort of starting to uncover all these stories, and histories and movements that people are part of that, you know, have really sort of set the stage for how we're able to live life today.

So I think it's just so important that we, you know, reclaim these histories.

And also, kind of, yeah, get our young people talking about this too.

Lori Townsend: Absolutely.

Even though it's somewhat painful, especially hearing some of the terms that were used and, and understanding that these policies were put in place that you're right, it's it is so important to learn about them so that we can avoid those mistakes going forward.

Unknown: Lori, if I might tune in as well.

Just, you know, following with Kengo, I'm still learning about this as well.

I, I went my entire life without really having that history, or knowledge being shared until, you know, I had to personally do a deep dive or I had relatives that were informing me of some of just the, you know, atrocities that were taking place or just overt racism.

And I think that, you know, we've gone a good way forward.

But I think we still have a lot of work to do.

And part of that is educating and advocating for the AAPI community.

Lori Townsend: Absolutely.

And you're so right, there is a lot of work to do, as we've seen some very troubling indications recently, and as we'll be talking about.

Edric, I want to stay with you.

In an earlier interview, you said that recognition of months dedicated to Asian history, it's okay.

But you kind of have an aversion to putting people in boxes.

So talk a little about that.

Unknown: Yeah, so you know, I think that is a very nice gesture, to have, you know, a month recognizing the importance of the AAPI community and others, that plays a huge part in American history.

But I think that we have to, you know, really move towards, you know, just understanding where each other come from, and learning from other people's culture.

And by that, you know, we could expand our base knowledge to have a better understanding of one another.

And, you know, I think that it's great that we have a month but honestly, I think that we should have a whole year you know, just trying to understand and learn each other within our own communities and beyond.

Lori Townsend: Absolutely, it should be a daily process, not just a month.

Lucy, how about for you?

What are your thoughts about this.

From your perspective, do these specific months that are kind of carved out to highlight various cultures?

Do they really help educate others and bring people together?

Do you see signs of that?

What are the positives that come out of these kinds of celebrations?

Unknown: Yes, thank you for asking me the question because I also as one of the hosts, the one that hosts our Pacific Island Culture Awareness Month in Anchorage, once every year, but COVID stop us from doing this.

But I think that is very important.

And I think that would be the only way that our community will understand each other, is to come and share and be a part of it is to provide those monthly history events or just education, because as we saw on what it was preview, back in the days, our elders that pass on that had brought this to Alaska.

I really, you know, it touches me because they fought for so hard, to be recognized this special moment.

And, and, and still, we still at the point that we still don't understand really, even our youth, even our young, our young kids don't even completely fully understand what their elders have gone through.

So I thank them for bringing that history in, for us to learn, and for us to teach on to our young kids.

And, and I believe that having knows events every month for each culture, not just our Pacific or not our Asian and Pacific Islander, but also other culture as well for us to understand each other and be respectful for each other's culture.

And thank you.

Absolutely.

Lori Townsend: Thank you, Lucy.

Kengo, you're a person of Japanese descent who grew up in Fairbanks, you work closely with youth.

What have you noticed about the way different generations of Asian American and Pacific Islanders view themselves within the community?

Unknown: Thanks for the question.

Yeah.

Ever since I moved to Anchorage, a couple of years back, I've kind of connected with a group of young Asian American and Pacific Islander folks through a group called AKAPIDA, the Alaska Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi Americans.

And I think what's been really amazing is just, I think that young people are really willing to connect like in between, across ethnic groups, nationalities, and really find those commonalities that we face.

And I think that's, that's brought me like a lot of support and enjoy over the years.

You know, AAPI, when we say that it's such a huge population of people, we're talking about people from several different continents, so many different identities and histories.

And there's a lot of historical divides that keep us from, you know, working with each other still.

But I think the young people are really willing to work through those and share stories with each other and stand in solidarity with each other.

Lori Townsend: Talk a little more about that.

The differences that you see in how younger people engage, especially with others, across ethnic lines, as opposed to older folks, is it better?

Is it worse?

Do you see more efforts at understanding?

Unknown: Well, I think it's just a different, you know, generation that we're living in, you know.

Our elders lived through so much.

And, you know, really, were focusing on like their survival and their future generations.

Now, now, we're seeing an entire entire generations of young people who are born in America, you know, you know, many people are multiracial, too.

And I think that we're seeing a lot of people coming together to sort of be with each other in that way.

Lori Townsend: All right.

Edric, the Filipino community in Juneau is closely linked to the local Alaska Native population.

That's true of most of coastal Alaska.

Tell us about that relationship and how it came to be and how it's changed and evolved.

Unknown: Yeah, so thanks for the question, Lori.

So, you know, in my efforts to learn more about my culture, and you know, just trying to go back to what Lucy said, is learning what our elders had to go through, is that you know, I found that my initial understand anyone's in the Filipino community was for Filipinos and all I saw were Filipinos.

But, you know, upon digging up more of the history is that I learned that it was created, in part, because there was lots of just racial tensions within Juneau.

And that, you know, there was an intermingling between Alaska Natives and Filipinos that, you know, if somebody had a child that was both, there wasn't really a place for them to call home or have a sense of community.

So they're kind of, you know, figuring out what they had to do.

And so actually, a lot of the folks who put in a lot of work where Alaska Native women who had what they called mestizo, so it's like a mix of Filipino and Alaskan Natives, that really, you know, pushed to make the organization happen.

And they ended up they ended up getting the property here in downtown Juneau.

And they created the Filipino Community, which, you know, became a home base for many people who didn't have a place to call home or have a sense of community to gather and share each other's culture.

And it actually got, you know, to the point where folks started breaking down the barriers where even had, you know, Governor Egan, was actually a common fixture of the Filipino Hall, back in the day when, you know, folks were having these tensions, but you know, he wasn't afraid to step over the line and enjoy Filipino and Alaska Native culture and the Mestizos, here in Juneau.

Lori Townsend: You know that that's such an important point to have those gathering places that are open to all too, so that people can come in and learn and engage and build relationships, because that's what it all comes down to is building relationships so that we have more respect and understanding of each other.

So that that sounds like it was a very good thing to have that opportunity and that development of that place.

Lucy, the the Polynesian community in Alaska was especially hit hard by COVID-19 during the past year, what are some of the health care factors that played into that?

And how is the community working to address those now?

Unknown: Thank you for the question.

Yes, our Pacific Islander in in Alaska got hit really hard by COVID.

We've seen some loved ones pass on because of COVID.

Not just with COVID itself, but it mix with their health or some health issue.

And we've seen a lot of this health issue come into our community because we move here and Alaska is cold have four season in where we come from, it's just one season, and it's just warm all year through.

So they get to get out of the house and they get to work and do some labor work.

When they move up here, you know, it's, they get this illness, it's either all added up with less exercise, more food, we're eating those not fresh food, but I guess frozen food or canned food or so.

And some of them, they also come up with some of the medical history, because they come up here to look for better way of medical treatment.

And so when they came, it's really hard for them to get to a doctor right away for health insurance issues for where they live or transportation.

So all of this it combined together to where it's really hard for them to get out, in and out.

And when COVID hid a lot of them that pass on were people that also have some other health issues.

And some of them they just had COVID passing on from some other loved ones because they live in apartments with more multiple families in apartments.

So one get hit by COVID, all the whole family gets hit by Coleman.

And then and that's how it got around the community so quickly, and where a lot of them have passed on because of that.

So we've seen a lot of that and Polynesian Association of Alaska, met up with some of the leaders in our churches in, in Anchorage, and were one of our churches, someone Assembly of Gods and the minister's wife agree on opening a door for us to bring the vaccine to the community because we cannot take the community to the vaccine.

And I know that we have, all of us have lifes to live and try to take your family and try to be you know, isolated from all this through the through the pandemic.

So we've asked the city to please bring the vaccine to the community, to the community.

I know in my community, every Sunday, mostly every family go to church.

And even when COVID was hitting, they will not stop going to church, they still meet at church.

So we've decided to bring the vaccine to the community and let the church open their doors up where it's the area, you know, it's a comfortable, it's a comfortable setting for our community to know that they're going to God's house.

And whatever happened there is in God's hands.

So they trust people that goes to church, they trust people that are going to be there, they trust the environment, not just going to a clinic or a doctor's office, you know, they don't know anybody but the doctor.

They don't know, either.

So that's how we got the vaccine.

Lori Townsend: Yeah, that does make sense that you would bring it to the people in a setting where they have already established a trusting relationship.

So that, sounds like a great way to have success.

I'm so happy to hear that.

Kengo, unfortunately we've seen a rise in anti rage, anti Asian racism around the country in recent months.

What have you heard through your work in the Anchorage community about this issue and how we can better address discrimination and racism?

Unknown: Thank you.

Yeah, I think first of all, it's really important for us to recognize this, this recent sort of flare and the anti-Asian, Asian and really broadly immigrant, sentiment against immigrants.

It's, it's really a continuation of a lot of things, um, over over the course of our history.

When I think of this, I think of a conversation that I had with my mother, actually, that has really struck, stuck with me.

And we were talking about this.

And, you know, we were privileged to grow up in Fairbanks, where we felt really welcomed by our community.

But my my mother was talking about after President Trump was elected, um, she, she started, sort of, you know, there, there'll be these times when she would go into the grocery store out in public or, or meeting people.

And maybe she has like a not a great experience with someone.

And kind of the first thing that comes to her mind is, you know, maybe that was because of the way I look or my race.

And she said, she never used to think about that like that before.

And I think it just speaks to sort of the more nuanced and permeating kind of aspect of racism we face here.

And I think it really, really makes a difference who, who we choose to be these leaders of our of our town, of our nation, and who we choose to be these figureheads that we're holding up.

And that can have a really real effect on how you know, the safety that people feel in their communities, and that they perceive.

Lori Townsend: Is there one thing?

Is there one thing that you in our final couple of minutes here, I'd love to hear from all three of you -- one thing that you would want allies and others to do to help promote the idea of more respect, more understanding?

What can all Alaskans do to help create more of that harmony that we need so desperately?

Unknown: I like to say something.

I think I'm sure all of us Alaskans should understand or learn about other cultures, because we are growing so huge in Alaska and more cultures are coming in.

So I think we shall try to learn about it.

Lori Townsend: Yes, more cultural understanding.

Edric.

Unknown: So, you know, just going back to the point that I mentioned earlier, Lucy reinforced, just, you know, learning about other people's culture.

And I, you know, I personally challenge everyone to, instead of making assumptions before meeting someone, just how about you actually have a conversation and learn about their culture and, you know, in my community I know that we're very inviting to anybody in the community that's interested in being part of the Filipino community, is that they are welcome.

And they're always welcome.

And they are never disappointed when they are part of it.

So I would challenge anyone in Alaska to reach out try something new and experience a different culture.

Lori Townsend: That's fantastic.

Thank you so much.

This time has flown by.

I so appreciate all three of you.

sharing your time with us this evening.

Thank you.

Many Asian American and Pacific Islander community groups have planned events to celebrate this month.

Be on the lookout for them in your local community.

Tonight, we wrap up our final episode of season four of Alaska Insight.

However you plan to spend the season of sunlight?

Have fun, be safe, and we'll be back with you right here next fall with a full lineup of Alaskan stories from all across our state.

Alaska Insight will take the summer off, but our hard working reporters continue to produce stories every day.

So be sure to tune in daily to your local public radio station for Alaska Morning News and Alaska News Nightly.

Make your voice heard by calling in to Talk of Alaska every Tuesday morning.

And for the latest news from across the state, be sure to visit our website alaskapublic.org.

You can sign up there for our free Daily News Digest so you don't miss important stories.

All episodes of Alaska Insight and related video content are at alaskapublic.org/alaskainsight.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

We'll be back with all new episodes for season five in September.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Have a great summer.

Good night.