SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A first-of-its-kind event is coming to the California State Capitol in time for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. The first annual Pasifika Day of Celebration will be held May 25 from 4:30-7 p.m.
The event is specifically dedicated to celebrating the richness and vastness of Pacific Islander culture. Organizers said the event was created due to the consistent lack of representation for Pacific Islanders during AANHPI Heritage Month celebrations.
"A lot of Pacific Islander communities know that AAPI month is, normally, a very taxing month for our community. We're often left unheard or unseen and (there's) a lot of lack of visibility for our Pacific Islander community," said Jimina Sevudredre, who's on the Pasifika Day planning committee and is also an advocacy coordinator with Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC). "So we really wanted to offer a space for our community to be recognized, to be celebrated but also to acknowledge all the hard work that our community has been doing on the ground."
The event will include about 20 Pacific Islander vendors, varying from food to apparel, cultural performances, various free resource booths that address topics such as mental health and civic engagement, mural activities that document the histories and contributions of Pacific Islanders, and a Pasifika Wavemakers Awards ceremony to recognize Pacific Islander leaders.
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Sevudredre said the event's location is also significant. Sacramento is home to a uniquely vibrant Pacific Islander community — one that shouldn't be viewed as monolithic.
"We have a large Melanesian community and Micronesian community, and so we have a large Marshallese population, we have a large Fijian population, which is not similar for any other areas like the Bay Area or Southern California, where it's predominantly Polynesian communities," she said.
Organizers said they hope this event will allow all Pacific Islanders to feel and stay connected, whether or not they were born and raised on the Islands. But the work continues beyond the event as well.
"Even after that, whether it's advocating or lobbying at the Capitol, whether it's bringing together community on the ground to do performances and things like that, we really try to make sure that our community is being properly represented and also being advocated for," Sevudredre said.
Sevudredre said this year's event will be a blueprint for what they can accomplish in the future.
"We really hope to continue it for years to come... we want to make sure that this is here for when my kids are here and their kids are here," she said.
Watch more AAPI Heritage Month stories: Auburn Chinese Cemetery brings back traditional celebration after nearly 100 years