Chúc mừng năm mới! Happy Lunar New Year!
Growing up, Tết, the lunar new year, was a very special time for me and my family. It was when special food was made, family and friends gathered, altars were set, and of course my favorite, the li xi red envelopes were exchanged. Now that I am older, I enjoy carrying aspects of Lunar New Year rituals into my life. It’s a great time to reflect, reset, connect, and invite in what you want to bring into the year ahead. But this year was very different. The horrifying and somber news of mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay was a stark reminder of the extreme violence facing our communities. Grieving acts of extreme violence within our communities can be a very isolating experience and I was very glad that APALA and CALA hosted a joint call to be in community with one another. Community is crucial for librarians of color. It is a place where we can celebrate, hold each other accountable, and support each other through tough times.
Community is something I have been thinking about a lot during my term as APALA president. It was one of the major themes that came out of the annual membership survey. APALA members want opportunities to connect with each other and have also raised very important questions about whether APALA is being inclusive enough, in particular of our Pacific Islander members. On the heels of LibLearnX and JCLC 2022, APALA has had to do some very hard reckoning and acknowledge that we are falling short in our commitment to serving our Pacific Islander (PI) colleagues by listing or hosting events at tiki themed bars. Pan Asian American and Pacific Islander organizing is meant to be a means of solidarity and affinity, but there are also many instances where this doesn’t address the very nuanced and unique needs of a particular ethnicity or group within the affinity space. When members of our community call you in, it is important to sit, listen, and truly reflect on the feedback in order to ensure that the plan of action is coming from a place of reflection vs defensiveness. It is important to educate ourselves on the problematic nature of tiki bars and for those who do not identify as PI, to advocate for Pacific Islander issues. I am deeply sorry for the actions that APALA has done to harm our PI colleagues.
An apology isn’t an apology without some steps towards repair and I want to re-commit our actions to be more inclusive of our Pacific Islander members and build upon our previous work towards this. Last fall, the APALA Engagement Task Force was tasked with investigating how to engage and support Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, South, Southeast, Southwest, and Central Asian American library workers within APALA and began their data analysis this winter. They will report on their findings and recommendations this spring/summer. Most recently, the Executive Board approved sponsoring the International Indigenous Librarians’ Forum (IILF) with the goal to provide scholarship funds for Pacific Islander APALA members to help attend the conference. Last year, the Executive Board approved APALA to join as an institutional member of the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (PIALA) and invited the PIALA President Erlinda C. Naputi and Vice President Roland San Nicolas to join as free APALA members. Our hope is to strengthen partnerships between the two organizations. The Executive Board is continuing to work on more concrete actions which will be informed by the work of the Engagement Task Force. We are committed to supporting and amplifying the voices in APALA that takes into account the varied and nuanced needs of the different communities in our association; and we will be sharing what we will do to better engage our Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, South, Southeast, Southwest, and Central Asian American community members using feedback from the community.
This winter, we also held a well attended webinar “Incorporating the Experiences of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in LIS Education: A New Resource.” presented by Britney Bibeault, Blanca Garcia-Barron, Eric Hung, Mea Lee, Sabine Lipten, and Renu Sagreiya. Continuing this, I am very excited to announce that Alice Sparkly Kat, author of Post-Colonial Astrology, will be hosting a workshop, “Repurposing Myth“ on March 22nd, 9 am HT/11amPT/1 pm CT/2pmET, and you can register here. We have more virtual programs planned this spring and will be announcing the President’s Program at ALA Annual soon.
Community building is important to me and this past quarter has really reinforced how essential community building is and the need for listening and reflecting on the instances where we have fallen short. Our community is a source of strength, support, learning, personal and professional improvement and I am thankful for it. I look forward to connecting with APALA members this year and continuing our work.
I wish each and every one of you a prosperous year that is filled with joy, peace, and above all else, plenty of rest.
Annie Pho
APALA President