Forum preserving cultural heritage of Asian and Pacific Islander communities held in Seattle

By James Tabafunda
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY       

Seattle’s Chinatown-International District on Sept. 9, 2024 (Photo by Ruth Bayang)

Preservationists, community advocates, and historians from across the nation convened in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID) for the 2024 Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP) Forum. 

Held from Sept. 12-15, the seventh biennial event focused on “Building a National Coalition to Preserve Local Communities.” The forum was centered in the CID, recently listed as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Places. This location serves as a perfect example for the urgency to protect APIA cultural heritage.   

APIAHiP Executive Director Huy Pham highlighted the district’s significance. 

APIAHiP Executive Director Huy Pham (Photo by James Tabafunda)

“It’s the only area in the continental United States where Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, African Americans, and Vietnamese settled together to build one neighborhood,” he said.  

The Wing Luke Museum, which focuses on the Asian Pacific American experience, hosted the event. The Mellon Foundation was the primary sponsor, joining many other sponsors. 

About 230 participants gathered at the historic Chong Wa Benevolent Association building on Sept. 12. Pham said that more than two-thirds of attendees traveled from outside the area, while the remainder were local to Seattle or Washington state. 

“I want to welcome you. Thank you for coming on behalf of the board of directors. It’s great to see all of you here and the excitement and energy here in this room this morning,” said APIAHiP Board of Directors Chair Bill Watanabe from Los Angeles, Calif. 

APIAHiP Board of Directors Chair Bill Watanabe (Photo by James Tabafunda)

Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have made timely contributions to historic preservation efforts in the United States.

Founded in 2007, APIAHiP is the joint project of APIA leaders who noticed a lack of representation at professional preservation conferences. Its origins can be traced to an APIA Caucus at the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual conference. 

The organization’s inaugural forum in 2010 drew more than 100 people to San Francisco, forming the starting point for a series of national gatherings. These events have since formed a diverse network of professionals and advocates committed to preserving Asian and Pacific Islander American cultural heritage. 

Following the 2020 forum in Honolulu, the Seattle event aims to address current opportunities and challenges in preserving Asian and Pacific Islander communities, cultural resources, and historic sites. 

Pham also welcomed the attendees, saying, “We gather here on the ancestral and unceded lands and waters of Lushootseed-speaking peoples, especially of the Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Suquamish, and Tulalip tribes, as well as those whose names we may not know today. Many Indigenous peoples continue to live and thrive here.”

Attendees at the 2024 APIAHiP Forum’s Welcome Remarks (Photo by James Tabafunda)

State Historic Preservation Officer Allyson Brooks, who works for the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, followed Pham, speaking on one challenge in preserving local communities. 

“The push for affordable housing, which is now the euphemism for take everything down, means that we’re going to lose our history,” she said.

She argued that “affordable” housing is often mistaken for low-income housing, noting that even Seattle’s median income of $250,000 disqualifies such units for many. Brooks emphasized that thousands of affordable and low-income housing units have been created from many of Seattle’s historic buildings, countering claims that preservation conflicts with housing goals. 

Another preservation challenge comes from land-use and transportation planners who may discount the historical significance of sites.

Brooks also acknowledged the importance of attendees’ efforts in preservation, making the history of their local communities more impactful than just words in a book. “I may do the over-my-dead-body work, but all of you here do the real work,” she said. “You out here are the ones who really fight the good fight every day to save your properties, to see your history. That makes people feel their history.”

Historic preservation creates deep, effective connections to the experiences of Asian American communities. “When I went to Minidoka, it was not just the buildings that got me. It was the landscape, and people don’t think about that,” she said. “It was a cold, cold landscape, and when you impact that landscape, you are impacting the story of what happened to the Japanese American community on the West Coast.”   

State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, who has academic training in historical preservation, also formally recognized the importance of attendees’ efforts. She framed historical preservation as a defense against cultural extinction. 

“The preservation of our historic and culturally significant AAPI places and creations is an affirmative act to hedge against the erasure of who we are through hegemonic and homogenous gentrification of our neighborhoods and communities,” she said.

She emphasized the urgency of preserving the CID following its selection to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Places list. 

“It is the equivalent of being identified to be placed on the endangered species list,” Santos said. She cautioned that taking down ethnic centers like Little Tokyos and Chinatowns would lose the history and cultural significance of Asian American communities. “By extension, our relevance is erased and rendered extinct,” she added. 

Community leader Ron Chew challenged conventional thoughts about the CID. He emphasized the importance of personal connections in understanding the neighborhood’s history. He shared childhood memories of his father working as a waiter and his family attending Cantonese opera performances, pointing out the CID’s identity as a cultural hub for Asian American families.

“At the heart of your experience here, particularly those of you from out of town, is the opportunity to meet one-on-one with folks and visit special places in our neighborhood,” Chew said. 

While the CID’s multiethnic history is not unique to Seattle, he encouraged attendees to engage with local residents and business owners, seeking out personal stories to fully understand the area’s history. Chew stressed the importance of community engagement in preserving the community.

“Our job is to open our minds to what places once were, what we thought they were, and what they actually were, because these places were evolving, too,” he added. 

His speech challenged attendees to review preconceived notions about the CID and similar neighborhoods nationwide, emphasizing the overlooked, evolving nature of these communities.

Several events at the forum offered attendees a varied list of cultural experiences across western Washington, featuring the region’s diverse APIA heritage.

They had the opportunity to explore various historic sites through guided tours. Options included a private tour of the Wing Luke Museum. For those interested in Japanese American history, a tour of Bainbridge Island included stops at Exclusion and Agricultural Heritage Sites. 

The forum featured tours showcasing Filipino American contributions to the region. Attendees had the opportunity to visit the Filipino American Community Hall on Bainbridge Island, which holds the distinction of being the first Filipino American-related historic site in Washington state to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Emily P. Lawsin, 4Culture historic preservation program manager and Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) national president emerita, also supports the importance of community engagement in preserving cultural heritage.

“On Sunday, Sep. 15, we will sponsor and host the Filipino American historic tour of Seattle,” she said. “We’ll make stops in Chinatown-International District, Rizal Park— which we’re working to get on the National Register of Historic Places—and the Filipino Community Center.”

The tour will end at the FANHS National Pinoy Archives, featuring a panel discussion on “Archives as Resistance.” This event demonstrates the important role of archival work in promoting and preserving cultural history. It will feature prominent figures in Filipino American history and archival work, including archivist Mariecris Gatlabayan from the University of Washington and FANHS, Dr. Dorothy Laigo Cordova, FANHS founder, and Cynthia Mejia-Giudici, who conducted a historic site study of Filipino Americans in the CID. 

The forum featured a variety of workshops and panels addressing critical issues in APIA historic preservation. These sessions included diversifying state and national historic registers, protecting Chinatowns, and addressing challenges in preserving South Asian American religious architecture. 

One interesting workshop explored new approaches to interpreting Angel Island’s history through storytelling, 3D models, and LEGO. This creative session highlights the forum’s focus on innovative preservation methods.

“We want these Asian American Pacific Islander ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves to learn from each other’s strategies and unique threats so that they can come up with new solutions,” Pham said. “Or maybe they’re not even new. Maybe it’s just trying in a different place.”

He emphasized the long-term goal of increasing “the federal definition of what is an important historic place” in the National Register of Historic Places. Currently, less than 3% of the official sites reflect the APIA community’s history. 

“That is a very measurable, tangible outcome to our diaspora,” Pham said.  

For more information on the 2024 Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation Forum, go to apiahip.org/forum-2024.

James Tabafunda can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.