America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers
Census Bureau Reaches Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Through Music
For the last few months, a groundbreaking music video collaboration has taken shape in Hawaii and various cities throughout the United States to highlight how Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) live in all parts of the nation and to encourage their response to the 2020 Census this spring.
To date, the video has had more than 1 million views on Facebook.
The music video features award-winning Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander musicians performing a cover of “This is Me” from the acclaimed film, The Greatest Showman.
“We chose locations with iconic scenery from some of the biggest cities in America,” said John Aeto, founder of the Kālaimoku Group, a Native Hawaiian-owned marketing agency that is part of Team Y&R, the communications agency hired by the U.S. Census Bureau to manage outreach for the 2020 Census.
“We wanted to show that there are footholds of Pacific Islanders all over the nation where our people are thriving while continuing to be rooted in their cultural identities,” he said.
As of 2010, approximately 1.2 million people identified as NHPI, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Over half (52%) live in just two states, Hawaii and California.
The NHPI population has been historically hard to count, according to 2000 and 2010 Post Enumeration Survey results. The Census Bureau found that some in this population have a profound distrust of government or language barriers that have negatively influenced their participation in the past.
That’s why we are reaching out to raise awareness in multicultural communities about the importance of the 2020 Census.
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