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Ainu Grassroots Organizing and the Indigenous Peoples Summit in Ainu Mosir Ann-Elise Lewallen

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Ainu Grassroots Organizing and the Indigenous Peoples Summit in Ainu Mosir Ann-Elise Lewallen Volume 6 | Issue 11 | Article ID 2971 | Nov 01, 2008 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Indigenous at last! Ainu Grassroots Organizing and the Indigenous Peoples Summit in Ainu Mosir ann-elise lewallen Indigenous at last! new generation of grassroots Ainu leaders were able to launch new initiatives, by harnessing Ainu Grassroots Organizing and thethe wave of international attention focused on Indigenous Peoples Summit in Ainu Mosir Hokkaido in early July to articulate a new politics of Ainu indigeneity, which this time had ann-elise lewallen received the imprimatur of Japanese officialdom. On June 6, 2008, Ainu people across Japan achieved a long-sought goal: they wereAside from a small group of Ainu living in unanimously granted recognition as anKamchatka, Ainu today reside across Japan, indigenous people by both houses of the Diet and Hokkaido or Ainu Mosir is considered by with passage of the “Resolution calling for the most Ainu to be their ancestral territory.[1] “In Recognition of the Ainu People as anthe past our ancestors lived abundantly on this Indigenous People of Japan.” Although the earth [Hokkaido], unrestrained and freely United Nations Declaration on the Rights of carrying on their lives, and its an unmistakable Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) was approved in fact that we have inherited this vast earth from September 2007 with a “yes” vote from Japan , our ancestors,” Ainu organizer Shimazaki the government continued to refuse indigenous Naomi emphasized.[2] International and recognition for Ainu people, citing the absence domestic attention to indigenous issues was of an international standard for indigeneity. elevated with DRIP’s passage, and the Japanese This June lawmakers forced the government’s government anticipated heightened hand by adopting the resolution; the Cabinet international attention to Ainu issues, with the Secretariat accepted the resolution on the G8 scheduled for Hokkaido. Expecting that same day. It would seem that the Cabinet Ainu groups might orchestrate protests in Secretariat was the last to realize whatdowntown Sapporo or Tokyo thereby exposing international society and indigenous peoples the bankruptcy of Japan’s progressive stance across the world had acknowledged since the on social issues – especially concerning human 1980s and what Hokkaido governor’s Utari rights legislation – many have argued the Diet Affairs Council had determined in 1988; that adopted the Resolution to avoid a public Ainu rightfully belonged to the community of shaming before the world community. indigenous peoples. Japan ’s plan to host the Legislators were concerned that if Japan, the G8 Summit in Hokkaido during July and much- world’s second largest economy and an anticipated global attention were undoubtedly aspiring leader among so-called advanced the primary factors in the hasty adoption of the nations, were held to international standards resolution; the Indigenous Peoples Summit in for human rights, it would rank embarrassingly Ainu Mosir created added pressure vis-à-vis low on the global scale. [3] Their concerns grassroots mobilization. As such, the G8 were warranted as Ainu and other minority Summit made possible a critical moment – a groups have disparagingly categorized Japan a moment for articulating agency – whereby a “third world nation” by human rights 1 6 | 11 | 0 APJ | JF standards, and they did organize protest had a major ripple effect. This impacted not marches straight to the Diet. But these took only Ainu people but represents a big step place in May before the G8 started. Japan ’s forward for rights reclamation for indigenous reported sensitivity to international opinion and people overseas as well.”[7] external pressure (gaiatsu) has long been exploited by minority communities to improve human rights inside Japan , and domestic rallying to pass the resolution ahead of the G8 Summit once again supports this argument. Undoubtedly attention to indigenous issues has been amplified through adoption of DRIP and global civil society has been responding to the indigenous movement in recent years. In Latin America, indigenous peoples have emerged as significant leaders of the new social movements; Bolivians elected an indigenous Aymara leader, Evo Morales, as President in 2006, and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo recently appointed an indigenous woman The IPS represented an historic moment: it was as Minister of Indigenous Affairs. In the the first international gathering in the context Commonwealth, Kevin Rudd’s apology to of a G8 Summit to focus exclusively on Australia’s “Stolen Generation” (February indigenous peoples’ responses to climate 2008) has been widely considered a defining change solutions and critique the global moment for initiating a reconciliationeconomic model being promoted by G8 process,[4] followed by Steven Harper’s official nations. These were also the first G8 meetings apology to survivors of Canada’s “Indian to be held since the UN Declaration on the Residential Schools” (June 2008),[5] and Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) was recently the New Zealand governmentadopted in September 2007. transferred ownership of 176,000 hectares of forest land to seven Maori tribes.[6] Just ahead of the G8 Summit, twenty-four indigenous delegates gathered in Hokkaido to discuss climate change and indigenous survival during the Indigenous Peoples Summit (IPS) in Ainu Mosir 2008, from July 1 to 4. “Because the main theme of the Toyako Summit was “environmental issues,” [the Japanese government] created a situation where indigenous Ainu could not be ignored,” Ainu organizer Shimazaki Naomi argued. “We felt that it was critical to make an appeal to the G8 leaders that Ainu are still living here and thriving, and communicate the thoughts of The G8 host site, Toyako, was located in the indigenous peoples [during the G8 Summit]. heart of Ainu ancestral territory and this Holding the IPS ahead of the G8 Summit also summit represented an opportunity for 2 6 | 11 | 0 APJ | JF indigenous peoples to urge G8 nations to look June 6. Thanks to the Diet resolution and G8 beyond economic growth-based models for “summit fever,” the IPS enjoyed international solutions to the current environmental crisis, to media attention across Europe, Asia, and North urge non-signatory states [8] to adopt the America, and was attended by roughly 1800 DRIP, and heed the appeals of indigenous people, including between 200-250 Ainu. peoples in each nation-state. The G8 Summit Momentum from the resolution created a mood provided an occasion for the Japaneseof celebration and indigenous delegates government to present Ainu as a “model of man attending the IPS officially welcomed Ainu into [sic] living in harmony with nature,” according the community of indigenous peoples. to one media report. [9] While this media Meanwhile, some Ainu leaders were suspicious report offers a compelling portrait of how Ainu that this eleventh-hour haste to recognize Ainu might strategically position themselves to indigeneity was another deal brokered for the advise visiting G8 delegations on designing G8. eco-friendly policies, to my knowledge the Japanese government displayed no formal The IPS offers one site for critically examining interest in Ainu or other indigenous peoples’ the dynamics of this emergent politics of sustainable practices during the actual G8. indigeneity in the Ainu community today. One According to Utari Association representatives, indicator that the IPS exemplifies a critical several traditionalist kimonos were created by moment for Ainu activism, in connection with local Ainu women cloth artists to be formally the indigenous movement globally, is that key presented to G8 leaders. The Utari Association IPS organizers plan to formalize this body into also requested to perform a kamuynomi ritual a network of global Ainu and indigenous blessing ceremony to welcome G8 leaders Ainu- grassroots organizing. Until now, the principal style. Both requests were turned down. The mouthpiece for Ainu rights recovery has been kimonos were placed on display in the Rusutsu the Ainu Association. As a national and future Press center and made available fortrans-national network, the IPS group provides international media to play dress-up. [10] The a counterpoint to the solitary voice of the Ainu only case in which Ainu were “presented” in Association and is expected to interject any formal way took place when G8 First dynamic dialogue into the wider Ainu Ladies were invited by Hokkaido Governor community itself. The Ainu Association has Takahashi Harumi to don traditional Ainu coats been criticized for failing to meet the needs of for a group photo, before being whisked off to many Ainu-identified persons, especially Ainu First Lady Kiyoko’s Japanese tea ceremony. outside Hokkaido who are ineligible for membership and for government-issued social As the first event of this magnitude to be welfare subsidies funneled through the organized principally by an Ainu-centricassociation. [13] the Ainu Association Steering Committee – outside government- originated as a social welfare organization with sanctioned networks of power such as the Ainu close ties to the prefectural government, and is Association of Hokkaido [11] - the IPSnow widely perceived as government- constitutes a pivotal moment for grassroots and dependent and fundamentally undemocratic. Ainu activism in Japan and the forging of Leadership is seen as being out of step with an international bonds.[12] The IPS Steering increasingly diverse Ainu-identified population
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