*Jeffry Gayman, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Education/ Hokkaido University Research
Faculty of Media and Communication
jeffry.gayman@imc.hokudai.ac.jp
Japan-Russia Scientific Forum, Online Workshop “Language and cultures of ethnic minorities
in higher education in Russia and Hokkaido”, 15 September, 2021

*Breadth of arenas of relationship affected (United Nations

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)*Recognition of agency in Indigenous resistance*Two systems, one operating in position of dominance inregard to functions and representation of the other withinsociety*Understanding that knowledge systems are deeply
imbricated in how we approach our disciplines*Breadth of disciplines available in Indigenous-related
fields illustrates the range of fronts on which Indigenous or
ethnic minority groups are endeavoring for selfempowerment*How are these fields connected to ours?

*

* Native Studies* Native Language Rejuvenationand Maintenance* Applied Linguistics* Native Language Education* Indigenous Education* American Indian Education
Administration* Native Social Work
* Indigenous Health Studies* Native Art* Indigenous Literature* Native American Documentary, Film,and New Digital Media*••••••••••

Tribal Historic Preservation
Tribal Law
Indigenous Rights and Social Justice
Tribal Public Administration
Tribal Development
Native Leadership
Native Business
Native Environmental Science
Native Forestry
Native Fisheries

*Notion of Indigenous sustainability.
*Two models for standards of success of Indigenous education at
higher education level,*Rubric for evaluation of educational programs which serve
Indigenous communities.

*Gayman’s educational and research activities at Hokkaido
University*Academic activities in support of the Ainu at other universities(Brief mention)* Situation at Hokkaido University.
* Director Katou’s comments*

*Within the broader angle of cultural Sustainability, to:* 1) begin or deepen the process of exploring models ofsupport for Indigenous/ethnic minority education at thetertiary education level;*2) to begin to examine the overall status and quality of
Ainu education for Ainu within the country of Japan;*3) to re-examine the programs which are being provided ateach of our respective institutions in Japan and Russia.

*Any comments or suggestions will be immenselyappreciated!

*

*Whyte, Caldwell and Schaefer (Menominee
Sustainable Development Institute)*Qualities of relationships. Qualities: “propertiesof relationships that make it possible for arelationship to have wide societal impact.
Qualities of relationships motivate the dischargeof responsibilities among the parties or relatives
within relationships” (Whyte et al 160).

*Cf: Kirkness and Barnhardt: Respect, Relevance,Reciprocity, and Responsibility*

*Redundancy is “a quality that refers to states of affairs thathave multiple options for adaptation when changes occur andthat are able to guarantee sufficient opportunities for educationand mentorship for community members”*Trust: a state in which the conditions for actualization of one’sroles and responsibilities are laid out explicitly andunequivocally enough that one can have confidence thatthrough fulfilling those, one will be dutifully contributing to thefulfillment of one’s role in society*Futurity: “refers to the idea that members of a society ought

to be able to experience that their own efforts andcontributions to their society play a part in making it so that avibrant future is possible for the coming generations and in theperceptual experiences of young people living today”*

*“To believe that we and our societies have futures, weneed to witness a sufficient degree of our relationships
and histories in (the structures and content of higher
education for Indigenous students andcommunities)…Redundancy supports futurity because it
allows us to witness the capacity of a (higher educationinstitution) to support an Indigenous people throughout
time. Trust is a basis for futurity because we see thatpeople in positions of political or epistemic authority (i.e.,professors and administrators) take our best interest toheart and that it is worthwhile in our lives (as students, oras community members connected to the university) to
put in the efforts required to cultivate ourselves as trusted
members of our societies” -Whyte, Caldwell and Schaefer,p. 163*

*Research and educational programs in Indigenous issues
exist in the CANZUS countries, Scandinavia, throughout
South America, Taiwan.

*Delegates representing Russia presented at the 2021

Conference of the Native American and Indigenous Studies
Association.

*Increasing number of standards and types, breadth, depthof interventions*

*Kirkness and Barnhardt’s 1991 “Indigenous Education: First
Nations and Higher Education: The Four R's - Respect,Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility,”*Indigenous people historically under-represented in theranks of college and university graduates in North America.

*Institutional perspective:*low achievement*high attrition*poor retention*weak persistence, etc.
*Onus for adjustment is on the student*

*Perspective of the (Indigenous) student: “the problem isoften cast in more human terms, with an emphasis on theneed for a higher educational system that respects themfor who they are, that is relevant to their view of theworld, that offers reciprocity in their relationships withothers, and that helps them exercise *responsibility overtheir own lives.” (1).

** responsibility over their own lives: “First Nations

students and communities are seeking an education thatwill also address their communal need for "capacitybuilding" to advance themselves as a distinct and selfdetermining society, not just as individuals” (8) (emphasisby author)*The Four R’s

*Curriculum*Student support services*Indigenous Advisory Bodies on education

and research relating to Indigenous issues*Employment of Indigenous faculty andresearchers*(James and Devlin 2006)

*・Commitment to community*・Integration of functions*・Sustained local leadership*・Participation of Elders*・Spiritual Harmony*・Use of local language*・Traditional ways of knowing*・Traditional teaching practices*・Congenial environment*・Participatory research

INT
E
R
V
E
NT
IO
N
S

INT
ERVE
NTI
O
NS

High degree of community presenceOpen classrooms which take students into the community.

*

Qualities of Indigenous-serving Institutions
Barnhardt (1991) "Higher Education in the Fourth World: Indigenous People Take Control”

IndigenousInstitution
Qualities /The 4 R’s

Indigenous
Culture-based
Education
Rubrics

Concreteinterventions
for Indigenous& ethnic student
empowerment*Indigenous

Culture-based

Education

Rubrics

ENACTING:

DEVELOPING:

EMERGING:

NOT PRESENT:

Reflects
incidental orpartially planned
efforts toward
integration of
local community
goals and values.

Reflects
contemporarysocial andcultural mores of(mainstream
institutions).

Promotes andReflects astrengthens theplanned anddistinctive
coordinatedcontemporary as effort toward
well asintegration oftraditional
local community
linguistic,
goals and values,cultural, spiritual, which may beand social mores partiallyof the community. implemented.

Indigenous
Culture-based Education Rubrics

Demmert, William G. Jr, R. Soleste Hilberg, Nämaka Rawlins, Kauanoe Kamanä,
Kristen French, and Florian Tom Johnson (2008, updated 2014)

Hokkaido
University
Initiatives

Urespa Project
History, Language
Culture,Archaeology

SapporoUniversity

TouyouUniversity*HUCAISlinguistics, Indigenous history,
Ethnology/Indigenous religion,archaeology, museumology, andcultural anthropology
Individual Labs (Gayman)IndigenousResearch Centerfaculty members
supportive of Ainu
students

Individualresearchers
at isolatedUniversities,Esp. linguists 7 Universities

in Hokkaido
Congenial! 4 in Tokyo Area

*Housed within the School of Education.
*Non-Indigenous students doing research on Indigenous peoples(sociolinguistics, heritage language education, Indigenous use ofthe media) and ethnic minority issues (labor)*Students who themselves are members of ethnic minorities(Belarus, Inner Mongolia)* Both are speakers of Indigenous/ minoritized languages (Belarusian,Mongolian)*Extensive connections with the community (volunteer work,attendance at events, joint activism)*Joint and collaborative research with Ainu and other Indigenouspeoples*Courses involving field experiences in Ainu communities*• Regular attendance andparticipation as staff atlocal events geared
toward Ainu
empowerment• Introducing participants tosuch Ainu events
Friendly andaccessible• Providing volunteer“face” toservices
local Ainu
• Respect, relevancecomm• Congenial EnvnAction• Collaborative, joint research Research on

project with local Ainu cultureArticulationsof Indigenousand language bearers
Knowledge in• Objective: contributing to the Hokkaido
enhancement of Ainu advisoryboards on research and education• Respect, relevance• Participatory ResearchIntegrated
learning/research,educationandsupervision• Bringing Indigenous
Ainu Elders into theClassroom as guest speakers• Placing Ainu community members
at the center of research projects• Integrating learning from thecommunity into education,
supervision

Education
forSustainable

Development

Campus•Asia-Pacific・Student “fieldwork”• engages deeply w/ issues ofstructural and individual
discrimination• Challenge to make content palatable• Commitment to Community, Traditional Ways ofKnowing, and Traditional Teaching• BUT, no direct connection to Ainu capacity bldg

*None of the above initiatives by me covers all of the points inKirkness and Barnhardt’s rubric*According to the standards created by Demmert et al, most of

my initiatives are at best at the level of “Evolving” (“Reflectsincidental or partially planned efforts toward integration oflocal community goals and values”)*However, it is also important to recognize that efforts are being
made at our university toward expansion of measures for Ainu
empowerment.

*CHALLENGE: Of course, when doing so, it is also necessary toaddress our efforts to the matching of local needs.

**One huge challenge: Transforming negative discourses about theAinu*HU’s long history of unilateral and arbitrary treatment of theAinu -- mere objects of research*No official apology for issue of Ainu Ancestral Remains housed on
HU campus* Dampening Ainu students’ motivation to study here, or at least tostudy Ainu topics?

*Unofficial faculty advocacy group* to urge university administration to channel more effort intotransforming our university into one more reflective on pastwrongdoings, more understanding of and supporting to the issues
faced by minoritized Ainu students.

*

*Still largely limited to a traditional model of academia confinedto the walls of the laboratory and the classroom.

* Fear of Ainu backlash from the Ainu community against a “unilateraland one-handed appropriation of Ainu knowledge”? ⇒ No courses
in ethnology*However, efforts to ：*1) enhance standards of Ainu participation in research*2) involve students in interactive learning with local Ainu Elders*3) raise critical historical awareness amongst faculty*4) engage in advocacy to increase Ainu voice and presence inuniversity administration.

*

*Ainu Center has established strong relations with Ainu
communities (Biratori, Kushiro) Commitment to theCommunity*Director Katou support of discourses 1) honoring Ainu

historical presence in Hokkaido, and 2) calling for Ainu
active involvement in management of local naturalresources.

*Huge contribution to university’s social impact*May create synergies vital to Ainu empowerment on
campus.

*Ainu faculty members and researchers employed on
campus*

*Sapporo University Urespa Project*scholarship program for students of Ainu descent*enrollees spend four years intensive study of Ainu
culture, history and language*Frequent fieldwork excursions to Ainu villages* Manifests almost all of Barnhardt’s rubric’s
characteristics*Newly opened National Ainu Museum and Park, “Upopoy”*Challenge: Cultivating Indigenous leadership.

*

*There is still much work to be done in the creation of systems

for empowerment of the sustainability of Ainu culture, language
and Ainu traditional knowledge*Faculty members at Hokkaido University have recently become
actively engaged in efforts at transforming discourses whichhave to-date limited Ainu growth.

*Connection to university and governmental support of Ainu
empowerment on larger and more expanded scales*Ainu case may truly become closer to what others haveidentified as a vision for “Indigenous sustainability” ??? YES!!!

*** Association on American Indian Affairs. Native American Studies Programs. Available online at: NativeStudies List - Association on American Indian Affairs (indian-affairs.org)* ・Barnhardt, R., 1991. "Higher Education in the Fourth World: Indigenous People Take Control." Tribal
College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education 3(2).
* ・Demmert, William G. Jr, R. Soleste Hilberg, Nämaka Rawlins, Kauanoe Kamanä, Kristen French,and Florian Tom Johnson (2008, updated 2014)* . Indigenous Culture-Based Education Rubrics. USA: Education Northwest. Available online at:* indigenous-cbe-rubrics-2014.pdf (educationnorthwest.org)* ・Gaudry, Adam and Danielle Lorenze, 2018. Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, anddecolonization: navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy. AlterNative.
Vol 14(3), pp.218-227.
* ・James, R, Devlin, M., 2006. Improving Indigenous outcomes and enhancing Indigenous culture andknowledge in Australian higher education, DEST, Canberra.
* ・Nakata, Martin, 2007. Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the Disciplines. Australia: Aboriginal Issues
Press.
* ・Simpson, Leanne and Glen Coulthard, interviewed by Eric Ritskes, Decolonization: Indigeneity,Education and Society (journal blog), November 26, 2014, https://decolonization.wordpress.com.
quoted in Whyte et al, 2018.
* ・Vizenor, Gerald, 1994. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. Lincoln: Universityof Nebraska Press.
* ・Whyte, Kyle, Chris Caldwell, and Marie Schaefer, 2018. Indigenous Lessons about Sustainability Are
Not Just for “All Humanity”. In Julie Sze (ed), Sustainability: Approaches to Environmental Justiceand Social Power. New York: NYU Press, pp. 149-180.
* ・WINHEC Accreditation Handbook, 3rd Ed. Available online at: Accredit. Handbook 3rd Ed (uaf.edu).
Accessed 2 September, 2021.