They Called Me, Hapa

In March 2021, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center partnered with Salted Logic, an indigenous women-led media collective to bring their Youth Access program to a group of 8 students from Hawai’i. This four-day workshop sought to give the next generation the tools and knowledge to become effective and influential storytellers. As experts of their own lived experience, we asked them to have hard conversations about language, identity, and culture – centered around the word ‘hapa’. They called me, ‘Hapa’ is an audio experience meant to guide you through conversations around self-acceptance, group identity, and multiculturalism.

In this episode we ask the question… Who gets to be hapa?