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Japan's 'vanishing' Ainu will finally be recognized as indigenous people
- theseadroid 7y agoFor anybody interested in learning a bit of Ainu people in a fun way, I highly recommend the anime Golden Kamuy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kamuy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kamuy)
- alephnerd 7y agoHinna hinna!
- eganist 7y agoF9 in Firefox to toggle reader view, which makes this quite a bit easier to read on wide screens.
- DavidVoid 7y agoAnd here's the full CNN version which includes a handful of images: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenou...
- sctb 7y agoThanks. The lite version is nice but we'll go with the canonical version (updated from http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_db08b33213d74c0d498afe6dc04c579c http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_db08b33213d74c0d498afe6dc04c...).
- laretluval 7y agoHow long ago do you have to arrive in a place to be “indigenous”?
- EliRivers 7y agoDepends on how recently the Johnny-come-latelys who wish you weren't there first got there.
- jdavis703 7y agoI think indigenous colloquially means the people who first used the land (e.g. hunting, farming, seasonal migrations, etc). So it’s not based on length of time, but order of arrival.
- runarberg 7y agoIt's not so simple. Before the indigenous Inuits migrated to Greenland there were other people groups there. There were the Dorosets and some people even believe the Norse arrived in Greenland a quite a few decades before the Inuit settled. So the Inuit were by no means the first people to use the land they currently occupy, yet nobody will dispute their claims of being indigenous to their lands. Contrast this also to the Faeroe Islands (another Danish colony in the North Atlantic) whose current people group settled there centuries before the Inuit settled Greenland, were (arguably[1]) the first people there. You’d definitely raise an eyebrow if you’d hear them being called indigenous. In short. Being the first people group to use the land is neither necessary nor sufficient for being indigenous. --- 1: The islands might have been settled earlier by Irish monks, however (unlike the modern Norse settlers) they never established settlements that lasted for generations.
- crooked-v 7y agoI'd consider it a combination of factors between (a) living there first and (b) not having local control of land recognized by colonizers, even in a superficial way (as the British did with India).
- aeturnum 7y agoI think this is generally true, but it might be more correct to say this: The oldest surviving culture(s) for a particular landmass and / or the existing culture(s) present for the first wave of recorded migration. We have good evidence that the Mayan and Aztec peoples had groups that preceded them on the land, but they are still indigenous.
- deogeo 7y ago> "Bob Marley sang that people who forget about their ancestors are the same as a tree without roots," says Kano, 62. "I checked the lyrics as a teenager, though they became more meaningful to me as I matured." A stark contrast to the 'accident of birth' attitude prevalent in much of the West.
- sverige 7y agoI've noticed that almost no one talks about Bob Marley's Welsh father.
- ZeroGravitas 7y agoThat might be because he wasn't Welsh, but a Jamaican-born son of an Englishman.
- sverige 7y agoI was wrong, he was English, not Welsh, apparently. But he was born in Crowborough, East Sussex, not in Jamaica. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27426329 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27426329
- wetpaws 7y agoI wonder if it's related to Golden Kamuy (manga/anime about ainu) popularity
- whoopdedo 7y agoMore likely this is motivated by Tokyo 2020. The trend in ceremonies these days is to tell the history of the country. It would be awkward for Japan's Olympic organizers to make a big show of Ainu being the first people on the islands while the government refuses to acknowledge them. And they couldn't well leave them out with the eyes of the world watching.
- zuse 7y agoFinally! I'm so glad to hear this. Hopefully awareness will spread and the Ainu culture and language will be preserved as a result.
- gyaniv 7y agoWhat does is mean in "indigenous people"? where did the other Japanese people come from? I think they should definitely be considered a minority, while still continuing with the actions mentioned in the article, like recognizing their culture and trying to help them after suffering discrimination. But I always find the term "Indigenous" weird, because we all came from somewhere, so will American from Italian descent be considered "Indigenous" (just to Italy and not America)? I feel like that word is always used to describe non western culture, things and customs that are considered "less advanced", less modern, that we need to preserve, when in reality I think it's just another culture that we need to respect and except, and that by calling that group of cultures "Indigenous" there is some racism involved (by all participants)
- chubot 7y agoIf you read Guns, Germs and Steel or maybe Sapiens, then the term "indigenous" should start to make sense. Wikipedia says they are known as "first peoples": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples For the most part, that is literally true -- they were the first group of humans on that land, humans having originated in Africa. These books make the point that agriculture is the essential difference between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Agricultural technology enables people to get on boats and take the land of non-agricultural societies. It enables greater popular density and wealth. This happened all over the world in the same progression, at roughly the same times. In America, the indigenous peoples came from Asia by way Alaska more than 10,000 years ago. Then Europeans came by boat ~500 years ago. I don't know much about the history of Japan, but it seems to have been inhabited by non-Japanese/Chinese and then the Chinese ancestors of Japanese conquered the land. If anyone knows details I'm interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dmon_period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dmon_period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people China was of course one of the first agricultural societies, and this enabled them to expand their territory rapidly, on the Asian continent and beyond. There were indigenous peoples living all over the Phillipines, Polynesia, Hawaii, etc. but they look "Asian" now because of the Chinese expansion. There were two different groups of people that collided.
- jl2718 7y agoThat’s a good point. Is an indigenous person still indigenous after traveling thousands of miles? Should an Alaskan native owned company still get preference in billion dollar government contracts when the owner lives in Washington DC and none of the employees are Alaskan? Seems like an incentive system designed to attract people away from the culture rather than preserve it.
- tuukkah 7y agoThere are international treaties on the indigenous peoples' rights but the governments are slow to implement them. For a similar situation in Europe, see how the Sami people are still lacking some self-determination rights in Lapland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sámi_people#Discrimination_against_the_Sami https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sámi_people#Discrimination_aga...
- ThJ 7y agoThis reminds me so much of my own lost heritage. My parents were Sami and Kven, but they didn't teach us, the children, their mother tongues. When they were growing up in the 50s and 60s, Norwegian schools would punish children who spoke their mother tongues instead of Norwegian. There was an explicit policy of assimilation and being Sami in particular carried shame. Unlike the person in the article, I was aware of my background. However, I am as robbed as he is of any cultural heritage. Our parents raised us as Norwegian — a generic version of it with few local roots except for the accidental Sami influences that did slip through the cracks. It didn't help that I grew up in a central area mostly populated by people from the surrounding areas. The distinguishing trait of my home town is that it doesn't have one. I feel mostly like a mutt. When I travel Norway, I see people with an actual culture, and I envy them a little. I don't have that kind of anchoring or rich tradition to draw on.
- perfmode 7y agoCultural erasure is such a violent crime. I’m sorry to hear this.
- thucydidesofusa 7y agoViolent? Isn't that the sort of concept inflation the alt-right uses to disdain refugees and the ctrl-left uses to disdain gentrifiers?
- pesmhey 7y agoLike vampires, sucking the soul from your body.
- Simon_says 7y agoThis statement is the opposite of true.
- zapzupnz 7y agoWhat's your reasoning?