Abstract
The Ainu are an Indigenous people native to the northern extents of the Japanese archipelago. Historically, they occupied the island of Hokkaido, the Russian peninsula of Sakhalin, and the Kurile Islands that stretch northeast towards Kamchatka. Despite their long historical roots in this territory, the Japanese government’s recognition of their rights and identities remains a site of contention. Our project follows the adoption of the 2019 Act on the Promotion of Ainu Culture. One outcome of this law was the creation of a new national Ainu museum centered on creating “The Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony” (or Upopoy in the Ainu language), which opened in 2020. In light of this new national museum, our project compares and contrasts approaches taken by Ainu-centered spaces at various levels: national, prefectural, municipal, and those run directly by Ainu communities. After three weeks of fieldwork visiting these sites, our paper analyzes the museum’s visual, linguistic, and hands-on experiential aspects, with a particular focus on the narratives created at each site. We pay close attention to how museums promote or challenge official discourses and the outdated notion of the Ainu as a “dying race,” a discourse prominent in early twentieth-century Japan.
Presenters
Christina SpikerAssistant Professor, Art and Art History / Asian Studies, St. Olaf College, Minnesota, United States Rika Ito
Professor, Asian Studies, St. Olaf College, Minnesota, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Ainu, Indigeneity, Coloniality, Japan, Knowledge Rhetorics, Museum as Cultural Creators
