We heard some powerful testimony this morning on HB 5574—Providing instruction on Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander history in public schools.
To all the students that spoke and many of them in-person. Thank you for your leadership!
Side note: There was one testifier against the bill. This testimony was quite hard to listen to. So just a warning that when you reach testifier in CON, you should make the personal choice as to if you listen or skip ahead a few minutes.
Below is testimony from June Nho Ivers, SCPTSA Co-Treasurer. Thank you, June, for your endless support of students and for sharing your story this morning!
“Chair Wellman and the members of our committee,
For the record, my name is June Nho Ivers and a constituent of 46th District and Co-Treasurer of Seattle Council PTSA.
My passion for advocacy was ignited when I met the Black Prisoner’s Caucus at Clallam Bay for my documentary film, Since I Been Down.
In the film, one of the prisoners said, “the only thing I learned about me and my people were how we were brought as slaves to this country — and that didn’t make me feel great when I showed up at school.”
As an Asian American, that resonated with me.
As a filmmaker and community storyteller, I have learned many truths and policy that silenced our community. I have learned about Sovereignty of Hawaii and the handover of the Philippines which are blights in our democratic values. The Tacoma Method and Japanese internment were homegrown in our state of Washington. I also learned about the solidarity of Black and Chicano Students of the civil rights movement here in our vanguard institution in University of Washington.
I don’t want to reflect only on the hate, oppression and the trauma. I also want to reflect on the 50 years since the fall of Saigon, Republican Governor Dan Evans welcomed the Vietnamese and from there Washington has created pathways and opportunities for the Cambodians, Laotian, Hmong, and lu Mien communities to Washington and the footprint and impact of our communities set forth policy that have welcomed Somalians, Ukrainians, Venezuelans, Angolans, Afghani, across the globe to Washington today.
The hundreds of people who signed against this bill because they want to control and subjugate the narrative of “truth”. It is fear and discomfort that they don’t speak in testimony to WHY they don’t want AANHPI curriculum, just like they didn’t want other ethnic studies bills in the past. It’s about access and restricting perspective. Education is Liberation.
We are a diverse state, but instead of burying the complicated truths, we can share our culture, our stories of impact, our collaboration, history of survival and help shape a future generation who will champion our collective humanity, with wisdom and our democratic values. Our humanity is not political. We all belong here.
Please support HB 5574 because Education is Liberation.
Thank you you senator Nobles for championing this bill with inclusion and fostering belonging.”