
Japan's 'vanishing' Ainu will finally be recognized as indigenous people - Breadmaker
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html
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ThJ
This 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.

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perfmode
Cultural erasure is such a violent crime. I’m sorry to hear this.

~~~
pesmhey
Like vampires, sucking the soul from your body.

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theseadroid
For 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
Hinna hinna!

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tuukkah
There 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_aga...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sámi_people#Discrimination_against_the_Sami)

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deogeo
> "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
I've noticed that almost no one talks about Bob Marley's Welsh father.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
That might be because he wasn't Welsh, but a Jamaican-born son of an
Englishman.

~~~
sverige
I 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)

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zuse
Finally! I'm so glad to hear this. Hopefully awareness will spread and the
Ainu culture and language will be preserved as a result.

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wetpaws
I wonder if it's related to Golden Kamuy (manga/anime about ainu) popularity

~~~
whoopdedo
More 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.

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eganist
F9 in Firefox to toggle reader view, which makes this quite a bit easier to
read on wide screens.

~~~
DavidVoid
And here's the full CNN version which includes a handful of images:
[https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-
indigenou...](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-
peoples-bill-intl/index.html)

~~~
sctb
Thanks. The lite version is nice but we'll go with the canonical version
(updated from
[http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_db08b33213d74c0d498afe6dc04c...](http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_db08b33213d74c0d498afe6dc04c579c)).

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gyaniv
What 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
If 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.

~~~
mbrumlow
Okay, now the hard question.

Why should we care that anybody was a "first people"? And how long down the
line will we recognize a group of people as fist people? Do they not make
babies with non first people?

10k years from now are we still going to be going on about "so and so is of so
so blood line making him indigenous" ?

While they seem like shitty questions, they are serious, because for somebody
like me who knows little about his past, its hard to wrap my mind around being
so attached to a group identity that really seems like it matters very little
to your ability to succeeded and live a happy life today -- unless -- you
declare being indigenous is something special and thus gives you extra rights,
or more say, or something? And if having the label brings nothing, they why
such the fuss?

Also, I am sure we can all trace our blood back to some "first people", so now
what? Can I go back to my "first peoples" land and demand to be called
indigenous?

~~~
marmada
It's not a hard question...

Indigenous peoples have their own cultures, languages, traditions, etc.
Unfortunately, colonization has oftentimes wiped out these things, as _said in
the article_ :

>The act implemented Japan's compulsory national education system in Hokkaido
and eliminated traditional systems of Ainu land rights and claims. Over time,
the Ainu were forced to give up their land and adopt Japanese customs through
a series of government initiatives.

>High levels of poverty and unemployment currently hinder the Ainu's social
progress. The percentage of Ainu who attend high school and university is far
lower than the Hokkaido average.

Recognizing that the Ainu are an indigenous people is one of many steps that
are necessary to create a more inclusive society so the Ainu can preserve
their culture/traditions and not be forced to assimilate.

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laretluval
How long ago do you have to arrive in a place to be “indigenous”?

~~~
jdavis703
I 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
It'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.

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jl2718
That’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.

