Interviewer: Siena Iwasaki Milbauer
This Asian Heritage Month, we’re talking with Minnesota-based Asian activists about what their heritage means to them, and how it motivates their work. You can read our first interview, with Tri Minh Vo of The SEAD Project, here.
Today, we share a conversation we had with Nicole Ektnitphong (she/her). Nicole is a longtime climate justice organizer and facilitator bringing participant-centered education and body-based wisdom to her work. She is currently the Statewide Organizing Director for MN350. Nicole spoke with us about her heritage, and how her family inspires her specific approach to organizing narratives and environmental justice.
Please introduce yourself
My name is Nicole Ektnitphong, I use she/her pronouns. I live in Minneapolis, but right now I’m based in Durham, NC, visiting family.
Please describe your heritage, whatever that means to you
My dad is Chinese, born and raised in Thailand. And his parents are Chinese, born and raised in Thailand. There’s a whole subset of Chinese folks that have just wound up in Thailand. And then my mom is Vietnamese and Lao. And she grew up in Laos, so she very much identifies with being Lao more than being Vietnamese.
When I talk about my heritage I’m like: Chinese? Thai? Vietnamese? Lao? But the thing that we identify most with is Thai, my mom also speaks Thai. Thai culture and food is similar to Lao culture and food. So, a lot of things about our family heritage are very Thai: Thai food, Thai culture, Thai language, Thai politics, and Thai religion.
Can you share a bit about your organizing work and what that looks like?
I do community organizing work. I have been doing that for the last seven years, since I was a student on campus. I mostly have been doing climate justice organizing, at the intersection of racial and economic justice. I’m based in Minneapolis but I do work statewide across Minnesota, that’s the main focus of my organizing work.
Outside of that, I also do a lot of training and facilitation work. I mainly train with a group called Training for Change that’s national and international. They are really focused on how to build the capacity of people doing social movement work to train and facilitate in a way that’s experiential and supports the group’s wisdom, but also moves the group forward towards its goals and purpose.
How does your heritage influence and/or motivate your work?
In terms of my heritage and my organizing work, my story about why I do this work is very rooted in who I do this work for. I do this work for myself, for my future, the family I want to have. But also I do this for my parents. I do this so that they can have a better life while they are here. And it’s not exactly about heritage in that way, but it feels connected for me.
Also, narrative is something that in the last year and a half I’ve been paying attention to more in my organizing work. And whenever it comes to narrative, I always think about my family.
I’m always trying to get closer to the narratives that are going to resonate with every day, working class, immigrant folks. Cause that’s what my parents are: every day, working class, immigrant folks.
I think historically, the climate justice movement has been very white, middle or upper class, and college educated, this certain kind of persona. But also, the history of environmental justice is really rooted in working class folks of color. So when I think about narrative, about who is this going to speak to, I think “What would my mom think of this?” She’s representative of a certain type of community that I want to be more prominent in the climate justice movement.
What does Asian Heritage Month mean to you?
There’s two sides to what it means to me. On the one hand, it doesn’t mean that much to me. I think it’s a nice acknowledgement, it’s a fine gesture, and I appreciate the people who are engaging with Asian Heritage Month in a critical way, in a way that is about how to build longer term consciousness around how you relate to your own bias and racism. But for me, I’m concerned with where does that go after the month?
And also, Asian Heritage Month can be about creating consumable content, for the enjoyment of people. That connects with a thing for me, especially being an Asian woman, where we are kind of like a commodity to be consumed for other people’s enjoyment. And I think that’s probably why I feel a little whatever about the month.
So there’s that side of me, and there’s also a side of me that loves any chance to celebrate folks. If there’s a month to do it, that’s great. And I think after all of the rise of Asian hate in the past year, entering into the mainstream public consciousness, it’s a moment to be showing love, celebration, and support to the Asian community. Which I’m not opposed to, but I think it goes beyond the month. We should be celebrating, uplifting, and in solidarity with folks throughout the whole year.
Learn more about Nicole and her work:
MN350: https://mn350.org/
Training for Change: https://www.trainingforchange.org/