2017 International
Conference on Policy
towards Indigenous
Peoples: Lessons to be
Learned andcorresponding
Indigenous
Workshop/Art
Exhibition in Sapporo
Japan
Hiroshi Maruyama *Deep in me there exists a landscape,which in my youth became suppressed.
Important memories, the connection to
my ancestors,
and deeply personal relations –like the lullaby of my grandmother
Lovisa, and my native language –all of this was extinguished.
Time took away the sense of presence
and existence.
My longing for origin has pushed me out
into the wild and pristine Nature;
only there I could feel the connectionthat links Time to my life.
There, a new insight arises.
The traces lead to other paths, further
and further into the mind.

*

Within the womb of Nature’s raw andcontinuous transformation,connections to the past and the future
are born –my inner chains are brought into thelight to finally dissolve.
- Louise Fontain

Approximately
100
researchers/artists/activists gathered in
Sapporo from 30 November to 4
December from all over the world. Their
purpose was to participate in theInternational Conference on Policy
towards Indigenous Peoples: Lessons tobeLearnedandcorresponding
Indigenous Workshop/Art Exhibition.
At least in Japan, there had never beensuch an art and academic event ofinternational standing before. In thisessay, I describe why the event wasplanned, how it was prepared, and how
it turned out to be. Additionally, I will
omit honorific titles in the text.
A brief history of the organizing
committee
In the middle of 2015, I started to plan foraninternational
conferenceonIndigenous policy in Sapporo in 2017with my international and Ainu friends.
As 2017 marks the tenth anniversary of
the historic adoption of the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights ofCentre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies, The Hugo Valentin Centre, Uppsala University

66

Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) by the
UN General Assembly, it occurred to me
that it would be a perfect time to assess
the impacts of the UNDRIP on
Indigenous policies. I continued
planning for more than two years withorganizing committee members as
Ryoko Tahara, then vice-president of the
Sapporo Ainu Association; Kamrul
Hossain, director of the Northern
Institute of Environmental and Minority
Law (NIEM), Arctic Centre, Universityof Lapland in Rovaniemi Finland; Anna
Petrétei, researcher at the NIEM; Leena
Huss, Professor at the Hugo Valentin
Centre, Uppsala University in Sweden;
Satu Gröndahl, Associate Professor at
the Hugo Valentin Centre; and Masumi
Tanaka, researcher at the Centre forEnvironmental and Minority Policy
Studies (CEMiPoS), online center
directed by me. The organizing
committee was joined later by Tomas
Colbengtson, lecturer at University ofArts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm,and Maile Taualii, Assistant Professor,
Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Health
Office of Public Health Studies, Myron B
Thompson School of Social Work
Hawaiinuiakea, School of Hawaiian
Knowledge, University of Hawaiʿi in
Mānoa.

Photo 1. The poster designed by Tomas
Colbengtson
In July 2016, Tomas Colbengtson joined
the organising committee soon after
Ryoko Tahara and I assisted him inlaunching a joint exhibition with Ainu
artist Koji Yuki in Sapporo and Nibutani,
Hokkaido, Japan. The exhibition was afirst watershed, a big step for us. We
then decided to combine the planned
academic conference on Indigenous
policy with a corresponding Indigenous
workshop/art exhibition, the whole
event lasting five days from November
30th to December 4th in Sapporo, Japan.
The poster for the conference/art
exhibition was designed by Colbengtsonand bore the slogans “Stand up for
Decolonisation” and “Collaboration
between Art and Research” (Photo 1).

67

Shortly
afterward,
Colbengtson
personally encouraged more than ten
Indigenous artists of his acquaintance in
Norway,Sweden,FinlandandGreenland to apply for funding to join
the Indigenous workshop/art exhibition
together with Ainu artists in Sapporo. In
December 2016 when our call for papers
was announced, Kamrul Hossain came
to Sapporo to undertake preliminary
discussions
ontheInternational
Conferenceon
Policytowards
Indigenous peoples with Masumi
Tanaka and me. This conference
followed as an extension of my ongoingcollaboration with him dating back to
2009. He also recommended several
young researchers of his team at the
NIEM to take part in the conference.
In January 2017, Ryoko Tahara convened
the last preparatory committee meetingfor the establishment of the Ainu
Women’s Association. Its primary aim
was to empower Ainu women to takeback their Indigenous rights. The
programme of their activities in 2017
included the co-hosting of theInternational Conference on Policy
towards Indigenous Peoples andcorresponding
Indigenous
Workshop/Art Exhibition in Sapporo
from 30 November to 4 December with
the CEMiPoS in collaboration with the
Hugo Valentin Centre and the NIEM. In
February 2017, the Hokkaido Shimbun
Press, the most influential newspaper in
Hokkaido,
reported
Hossain’s

involvement in the international
conference as a series of its reports on theinternational conference (Photo 2). In
March 2017, Colbengtson visited
Sapporo again for the purpose of having
preliminary discussions concerning theIndigenous workshop/art exhibition
with three directors of the Ainu
Women’s Association: Ryoko Tahara,
Tomoko Mitsuno, and Yoko Sasaki,(Photo 3), along with Masumi Tanaka
and me.

Photo 2. The Hokkaido Shimbun Press
published its interview with Kamrul
Hossain on 8 February 2017

Photo 3. Tomas Colbengtson speaking
with three directors of the Ainu
Women’s Association with interpretingby Masumi Tanaka in Sapporo

68

The second watershed for us came withMaile Taualii. In May 2017, she proposeda session of Indigenous health issues tobe included in the international
conference just before the call for papers
was over. The organizing committee
immediately accepted her proposal andextended the call for papers to the
middle of June. The inclusion of asession of Indigenous health issues
made the conference much morecomprehensive. Taualii was alsoplanning to bring a number of her
students to Sapporo to highlight theirwork at her session. In September, she
confirmed she and her students werepreparing to travel to Sapporo.
Furthermore, in the middle ofNovember, I had the last preliminary
discussions with Leena Huss, Satu
Gröndahl, Tomas Colbengtson, andKamrul Hossain at the Hugo Valentin
Centre in Uppsala regarding the fiveday art and academic event (Photo 4). At
that time, they were confident that theevent would be successful, though I still
had a vague feeling of anxiety. At aboutthat time in Rovaniemi, Anna Petrétei
was finalizing the 120-page abstract
book. In Sapporo, steering committee
members—in particular, Jeff Gayman,
associate
Professorat
Hokkaido
University, Hiroyuki Domon, vicepresident at Takushoku University
Hokkaido College, and core volunteer
interpreters: Ritsuko Hirose, Kazuko
Backhouse, Misao Matsumura and
Makoto Shimizu were working on theorganizing of the venues along withmembers of the Ainu women’s
Association. Additionally, it should be
noted that Leena Huss had immediately
responded to my frequent requests for
consultation all the time throughout thetwo-yearperiodofpreparation.

Photo 4. Satu Gröndahl, Leena Huss,
Hiroshi Maruyama, Kamrul Hossain,
and Tomas Colbengtson (from left toright) at the Hugo Valentin Centre,
Uppsala University

Key areas
Conference

of

the

International

The international conference aimed toassess the existing policies towards
Indigenous peoples at local, regional,
and global levels in light of the UNDRIP
and with a view to decolonizing thosepolicies. Given that the purpose of the
UNDRIP is to remedy the historicaldenial of the right of self-determination
and related human rights (Anaya 2009:191), and that special measures are
required to safeguard the right ofIndigenous peoples to lands, territories
and resources which they have69

traditionally owned, occupied orotherwise used or acquired (Anaya 2009:193), discussion was to focus on two key
areas:
1. Redress for historical injustices
imposed on Indigenous peoples andtheir struggle for Indigenous rights
2. Exploitation of natural resources byexternal
powersinIndigenous
communities and their resistance againstthem
I thought that the former key area could
be handled by two international
lawyers: Hossain and Petrétei at the
NIEM and that the latter could be taken
responsibility by me, director of the
CEMiPoS.
Furthermore,
given
that
specialmeasures are also required to restore
and secure Indigenous peoples’ rights inrelation to culture, religion, traditional
knowledge, the environment, physicalsecurity, health, education, the welfare
of women and children, the media, andmaintaining traditional relations acrossinternational borders (Anaya 2009: 193),
the following three key areas wereadded to the themes of the conference.
3. Linguistic and cultural revitalization
led by Indigenous peoples in the wake ofcultural genocide under colonialism

4. Indigenous women on the front line ofsufferings and struggles
5. Indigenous health issues
In regard to a relationship between thespecial measures listed above and three
key areas, linguistic and culturalrevitalization are to be related toreligion,traditional
knowledge,
education, the media and maintaining
relations across international borders.
Indigenous women on the front line ofsufferings and struggles include thewelfare of women and children.
Indigenous health issues are regarded ascomposed of physical security andhealth. Thus the five key areas wereconsidered to cover almost all of therights of Indigenous peoples guaranteedby the UNDRIP. Leena Huss, who over
the years has done major research on
minority languages, language policies,
and the revitalization of the Sami
languages, was responsible for the third
key area. Satu Gröndahl once intimatedto me the important roles Elsa Laula
Renberg and other female Sami leaders
played in improving the status of Sami
people. It led to the inclusion of thesufferings and struggles of Indigenous
women as one of the key areas, handled
by Gröndahl. Additionally, the area of
Indigenous health issues was delegatedto Maile Taualii.
The programme of the international
conference was reflective of my concept70

of Indigenous policy. In my opinion, theprogress of Indigenous policy has been
facilitated by Indigenous activists’continual struggle against colonialism
and by the endorsement of international
layers and NGOs. It is proved by the2007 adoption of the UNDRIP by the UN
General Assembly. The International
ConferenceofPolicytowards
Indigenous Peoples was, therefore,
organized to be a space where
Indigenous/non-Indigenous researchers
tackle problems facing Indigenous
peoples through their presentations,work out how to support Indigenous
peoples’ struggle on the basis ofinternational
humanrightslaw,
including the UNDRIP, and humansecurity, through exchanging opinionswith those people concerned, and get aclue as to how to find solutions fromdiscussion with others, including
Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, sinceinternational human rights standards
guarantee the free, prior, and informed
consent of Indigenous peoples todecisions affecting them, it was crucial
that Indigenous values were at the centerof discussions concerning Indigenous
policy.

Indigenous Workshop/Art Exhibition
Prior to the international conference,from 30 November to 1 December, theIndigenous Workshop/Art Exhibition

was held at Sapporo Pirka Kotan. The
day before the start, international
Indigenous artists, including Tomas
Colbengtson, Britta Marakatt Labba,
Julie
Edel
Hardenberg,
Antonie
Grahamsdaughter, Matti Aikio, Marie
Persson Njajta, Anni Linn Fjällström,
Lena Stenberg, and Ngaroma Riley,
jointly presented their art andexchanged ideas among themselves andwith Ainu artists: Koji Yuki, Shizue
Ukaji, Ryoko Fujioka, Hiromi Abe,
Yukari
Naganawa
andKayokoHiramura (Photos 5, 6, 7, 8).

Photo 5. Participants in the Indigenous
Workshop/Art Exhibition at Sapporo
Pirka Kotan on 1 December 2017

Ranging in form from embroidery tovideo installation, their artworks
expressed feelings of veneration for
nature and ancestors, and their strong
will to transmit their culture and history
from generation to generation, and someof them explicitly sent us a message of
decolonization (Photo 9, 10, 11, 12).
During the art exhibition, international

71

Indigenous
performers,
including
Torgeir Vassvik and Elisabeth Heilmann
Blind (Photo 13), were brought together
with Ainu performers such as Ponpe
Ishii and Koji Yuki for improvisations.
The atmosphere inside Sapporo Pirka
Kotan was full of enthusiasm, a sense ofsolidarity and international friendship.
After the Indigenous Workshop/Art
Exhibition, Ryoko Tahara regretfully
told me that two days were not enoughto show the cultural strength of
Indigenous peoples. On 5 December
whenleaving
Sapporo,Antonie
Grahamsdaughter was contemplating
the possibility to host an art event with
Ainu women in Stockholm in 2018. At
the beginning of January 2018, Shizue
Ukaji and Kayoko Hiramura wrote to me
that
they
felt
empoweredbyparticipatingintheIndigenous
workshop/art exhibition.

Photo 7. Tomas Colbengtson (left) andKyoko Kagaya (right) in front of Marie
Persson Njajta’s art (By courtesy ofMarie Persson Njajta)

Photo 8. Antonie Grahamsdaughter(left) and Shizue Ukaji (right) with Ainu
art

Photo 6. Britta Marakatt Labba, Elisabeth
Heilmann Blind, Tomas Colbengtsonand Lena Stenberg (from left to right) at
Sapporo Pirla Kotan (By courtesy ofMarie Persson Njajta)
Photo 9. Julie Edel Hardenberg’s art

72

Photo 10. Tomas Colbengtson’s glass
sculpture

Photo 11. Kayoko Hiramura’s tanka

Photo 12. Koji Yuki’s art

Photo 13. Elisabeth Heilmann Blind’s
mask dance performance (By courtesyof Antonie Grahamsdaughter)

Furthermore,
four dancers from
Amareya Theatre in Gdansk Poland:
Katarzyna
Pastuszak,
Aleksandra
Sliwinska, Daniela Komedera, andMonika Wińczyk, and Greenlandic Inuit
performer Louise Fontain presented“Nomadic Woman” on the stage (Photo14, 15, 16). According to their flyer,“Nomadic Woman” is a cross-genre andcross-cultural
performanceabout
women and their inner and outerimmigration, about the situation ofIndigenous women and their relation to
inner and outer landscape. It is also
based on the true story of Fontain, who
was deported to Denmark fromGreenland in her childhood to be“civilized” by Danish assimilation
policy, and who consequently, lost her
mother tongue, contact with her family
members and identity. The flyer further
tells us that after many years of exile,
Fontain finally realized that her true73

home is in the inner landscape that she
holds within her and in the naturallandscape of the far North. “Nomadic
Woman”
wasdirected
andchoreographed by Katarzyna Pastuszak,
art director of Amareya Theatre, withtechnical
supportfrom
JakubMiśkiewicz. In Sapporo, Pastuszak
decided to recruit an Ainu woman
named Tsugumi Matsudaira as a guest
performer for “Nomadic Woman” witha view to performing it at the Conferenceon Bronisław Piłsudski and his researchon Ainu people in 2018 planned by
Culture Centre Manggha in Cracow,
Poland. The new version of “Nomadic
Woman” visualized the agonies of Ainu
women as well as those of other
Indigenous peoples. Sapporo Pirka
Kotan resounded with unceasing
applause after the performance wasover.
All of this occurred in spite of the factthat Sapporo Pirka Kotan was not very
well suited to this kind of art event—it isfar from the center of Sapporo and has apoorly-equipped stage. Considering thatthe office of the Ainu Women’s
Association is located in Sapporo Pirka
Kotan,
hostingthe
Indigenous
workshop/art exhibition was aimed toempower Ainu women. For that
purpose, we put energy and money into
the improvement of the stage for the
performance of “Nomadic Woman”
with the help of Hiroyuki Domon.
Pastuszak and Amareya Theatre finallysucceeded in solving these issues facing
their performance. At present Pastuszak
is applying to perform “Nomadic
Woman” with two Ainu women(Tsugumi Matsudaira and Utae Ehara)at the 2018 CINARS Biennale inMontreal, Canada, as well as theConference on Bronisław Piłsudski.
Matsudaira and Ehara felt highly
honored in being chosen as guests forAmareya Theatre’s performance when I
talked to them in January 2018. In
addition, the venue, reception and lunch
for participants were taken care of by thefollowing members of the Ainu
Women’s Association: Kimiko Naraki,
Chiaki Ihashi, Mika Ishii, Ryoko Fujioka,
Yukari Naganawa, Hiromi Abe, andKyoko Kagaya, as well as two Ainu men
Shigeru Naganawa and Toshikazu
Ogawa.

Photo
14.
Katarzyna
Nomadic Woman

Pastuszak,

74

Photo 15. Monika Wińczyk, Nomadic
Woman

Photo 16. Daniela Komedera, Tsugumi
Matsudaira, Katarzyna Pastudszak,
Monika Wińczyk, Louise Fontain, andAleksandra Sliwinska (from left to right)
An overview of the International
Conference
From 2 to 4 December 2017,
approximately
70
international
researchers/artists gathered at Hokkaido
University in Sapporo from all over theworld, as a result of our regularly
distributing calls for papers and updated
information through our own blog andFacebook. In fact, I regularly posted
original information on the art andacademic event on the blog andFacebook and through Japanese media,
while other organising committee
members distributed the information
further to their friends on Facebook andthrough other media. The Hugo
Valentin Centre at Uppsala University
also helped spread information to theworld via their home page andFacebook. In the three-day international
conference in December 2017 in
Sapporo, 36 out of 45 presentations were
given by international presenters,
mostly researchers from Canada,
Finland, Sweden, Norway, Hawaiʽi,USA, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia,
Greenland and India. As main speakers
of each session, I invited six revered
Ainu elder activists: Shizue Ukaji, Yuji
Shimizu, Koichi Kaizawa, Shiro Kayano,
Satoshi Hatakeyama and Mamoru
Tazawa to the international conference.
They presented problems with Ainu
policy. It is no exaggeration to say that
there are few Ainu who represent thecurrent Ainu struggle against theJapanese government for their rights
better than those elder activists.
Journalist from the Hokkaido Shimbun
Press Yosuke Kosaka and three
Professors: Jeff Gayman and Kunihiko
Yoshida, Hokkaido University and
Kenichiro
Hirose,Kagoshima
Immaculate Heart University criticallyanalysed Ainu policyin theirpresentations. Those six Ainu elder
activists and three researchers comprisethe core of the Citizens’ Alliance for the75

Examination of Ainu Policy that I coorganised in April 2016 in Sapporo withthem for the purpose of proposing an
Indigenous rights-based alternative tothe current Japanese government-led
Ainu policy to the UN human rights
monitoring bodies as well as theJapanese government.
While Day 1 and Day 3 had two parallelsessions, Day 2 only had one session
focusing on women’s issues, chaired bySatu Gröndahl. A panel discussion washeld in the morning with two leading
Ainu female activists, Shizue Ukaji and
Ryoko Tahara, and a discussion on
Indigenous women took place in theafternoon with international researchers
from Canada, New Zealand, Australia
and Sweden. Day 2 was a highlight ofthe conference, not least in light ofempowering Ainu women who coorganised the conference. Thus, thepanel discussion and the subsequent
presentations were interpreted into
Japanese for Ainu and Japaneseparticipants. Throughout the conference,
the issue of how to guarantee the rights
of Indigenous peoples was discussed interms of international human rights law,
including the UNDRIP, human security
and Indigenous values, which is quite
different from discussion on Indigenous

policy in Japan that is usually based on
the Constitution. 1 Below I will give some
glimpses of the international conference
based on the sessions I attended.
Day 1
The opening session began with awelcoming speech of Ryoko Tahara(Photo 17), chief director of the Ainu
Women’s Association, with an efficientinterpreting by Ngaroma Riley, New
Zealand Māori. After expressing her
gratitude to all the participants for a visit
to Ainumosir (Ainu land), Tahara spoke:
Many
Indigenous
peoplesthroughout the world were forced
to be assimilated for colonization.
We had been deprived of lands,
livelihoods,
languages
andcultures, and even lost a pride as apeople. But I believe such injustices
will not last forever…It has been 15
years since we started working
towards
anti-discrimination
against Ainu women. We will beable to bring this pressing problem
to the table at this international
conference tomorrow. It’s amazing
to think Ainu women have come sofar. From today we kick off theErica-Irene A Daes (2008, p. 23) writes about the UNDRIP as follows: “It should […] be emphasizedthat the declaration is a declaration of human rights and it is universally understood in the law ofnations that human rights obligations are not subject to contrary domestic legislation. Human rights
law prevails over national law”. In this context, discussion on Indigenous policy should be based on atleast international human rights standards, which is usual in the international community.
176International Conference on Policy
towards Indigenous Peoples.

Photo 17. Ryoko Tahara (left) addressed
the opening session with interpreter
Ngaroma Riley (right)

The opening session was followed by
Tomas
Colbengtson’s
andmywelcoming speeches. Furthermore,lectures were given by two invited
speakers: Mark Winchester, lecturer,
Kanda University of International
Studies, Japan, and Marie Persson Njajta,
Sami human rights defender/designer in
Sweden.
Under the title of “Backlash: Hate
Speech,Indigenous
DenialandHistorical Revisionism in Post-DRIPS
Japan”, Winchester lectured on theworsening of the current politicalsituation surrounding the Ainu. His
academic specialty is the modern historyof Ainu thought. Winchester regards the
Ainu experience as essential tounderstanding modernity in Japan andwider North East Asia, whilst preceding

researchers made use of the Ainu tomerelytoacquireethnographic
information. He thereby appreciates thatthe writings of Ainu intellectuals present
challenges of thought to be addressed ona global scale. At the same time, as a core
member of the Counter Racist Action
Collective North, he has been fighting
against those who make hate speeches
and demonstrations against the Ainu
and other minorities. I expect him to lead
Ainu studies in Japan. Njajta presented
problems faced by Indigenous peoples
covering the above-mentioned five key
areas under the title of “The Damning of
A People: Indigenous Struggle against
Past and Present Colonial Behavior;
Mining and Exploitation; Striving for a
Healthy
Future.”
She
lives
in
Dearna/Tärnaby, Sweden, making aliving by traditional fishing, gathering
herbs, and making Sami handicraft.
Creative expressions have always been
her way to cope with colonial wounds
and abuses. She has put great effort into
addressing mining and exploitation
issues for almost ten years, due to thefact that traditional South Sami land,
water and culture are threatened by aplanned large-scale nickel mining
project. In the Sami parliament in
Sweden, she has been committed to theneed for a Truth Commission on thecolonial abuses by the Swedish stateagainst the Sami people. In 2017, she
represented The Sami Parliament in the
Swedish delegation to the UN
Commission on the Status of Women

77

(CSW61). Over the years, I have learned
a lot about the situation facing the SouthSami in Dearna/Tärnaby from her. Both
Winchester and Njajta are courageousenough to confront difficulties bythemselves and to make a difference.
After the opening session in themorning, there were two parallelsessions in the afternoon: “Redress for
Historical Injustices Imposed on
Indigenous Peoples” chaired by Anna
Petrétei and “Indigenous Health Issues”
moderated by Maile Taualii (Photo 18). I
chose the latter session because it was
new to me. It was a great pity that I could
not attend the former though I knew its
all presentations deserved to be heard.
Maile Taualii opened the session with a
traditional chant, followed by apresentation which described the needand importance of developing an
Indigenous Public Health workforce.
She described how the world’s firstglobal Master of Public Health (MPH)
programme was created at the
University of Hawaiʽi and how the
programme focuses on methods, ethics
and social justice. She also highlighted
the work of a number of students andgraduates. Four students - Yuito Okada,
Malia
Purdy,
Siera
Kawenaokahokuwelowelo Hirayama,
Kamuela Werner, and Landen Muasau presented their work. Topics included;
navigating the health care system withthe help of trained family members,

focusing on the family and community
for health care interventions, creating a
Native Hawaiian place of learning inmedicalschools,andensuring
Indigenous peoples with disabilities
have equal access to land based
programmes. Since the launch of the
Native Hawaiian and Indigenous MPH
programme at the University of Hawaiʽiin the fall of 2013, 30 students haveenrolled in the programme, of which
90% were representative of 6 indigenous
nations. There have been 23 graduates,with 8 continuing on with doctoral
programmes. The graduate degree
programme is building the Indigenous
PublicHealthWorkforce
while
promoting cultural safety practices andinfluencing Indigenous health policy,
public health education, health service
mandates, research methodology, andprogramme evaluation.

Photo 18. Maile Taualii chaired thesession of Indigenous health issues

Taualii ’s session on Indigenous healthissues was also augmented by expertise
resulting from major long-term studies
done by two professors: James Daschuk,78

Associate
Professor,
FacultyofKinesiology and Health Studies,
University of Regina in Canada, andMaria de Lourdes Beldi de Alcantara,
Professor, Medical school, University ofSão Paulo in Brazil. Daschuk began his
presentation “Colonialism and the Lossof Indigenous Health: A Canadian
Example” by speaking on the Truth andReconciliation Commission of Canada.
He underscored the Commission’s
statement of health, noting that thecurrent state of Aboriginal health in
Canada is a direct result of previous
Canadian
government
policies.
Afterwards, he traced the history ofmalnutrition and famine of First Nations
caused by European settlers andportrayed the ongoing disparities inhealth and life expectancy between
Indigenous and mainstream Canadians.
Alcantara is a professor of Medical
Anthropology in the Medical School of
the University of São Paulo, and also a
researcher and consultant for theInternational Work Group of Indigenous
Peoples (IWGIA), the head of a NGO“Support Group for Indigenous YouthGAPK”, and an observer of thePermanent Forum for Indigenous Issues
at the UN. In her presentation “Dialogue
among
Indigenous
Youth
and
Physicians in Dourado’s Reservation,
Matoa Gross do Sul, Brazil”, Alcantara
expressed her opinion that Westernprescriptions could not work for
Indigenous peoples and analysed
conversations in relation to suicide

between physicians and Indigenous
young patients. In addition, Dele
Raheem, Post-doctoral researcher, the
NIEM, Rovaniemi Finland, contributed
to the session by giving the audience anidea of how important food sovereignty
is to Indigenous peoples’ health.
Day 2
In the morning panel discussion, Shizue
Ukaji (Photo 19) emphasized theimportance for the Ainu people ofpraying daily to their gods. Perhaps it
can be asserted that Ainu culture isbased on a communal livelihood, which
involves praying to deities, as Ainu
people believe everything is given by thegods. In Ukaji’s lecture, I felt there wasunderlying message warning younger
generations that are losing ties with theirtraditional livelihoods and communities.
Ukaji also blamed herself for having had
a child with a Japanese husband with aview to softening features of Ainu
people in her child. “I am still sufferingfrom this”, she added. In response to myquestion of why she founded the first
Ainu organization in the Tokyo
metropolitan area, Ukaji answered that
she had suffered, working in Tokyo likea Japanese, far away from her home in
Hokkaido and that she wanted to know
why Ainu people were in poverty anddiscriminated against.

79

Photo 19. Shizue Ukaji

Ryoko Tahara said that she had heard
many stories regarding insults to Ainu
women while serving as a life
coach/social worker for her colleagues.
She exemplified this bringing up thecases of Japanese migratory workers
who live with Ainu women during
summer and leave for their homes in
winter. She also explained that byorganizing the first Ainu Women’s
Association she had wanted to improve
the situation faced by Ainu women:poverty, lack of opportunities to get an
education and employment, and lack of
pride caused by a Japanese custom ofmale dominance. The panel discussion
was facilitated by the efficientinterpretation by Jeff Gayman and MarkWinchester. Both of them have been
involved in Ainu studies in favor of the
Ainu for many years, and have earned
the trust of the Ainu around them.

In the afternoon, the high rate of humantrafficking and sexual exploitation ofIndigenous women compared with thatof majority women in New Zealand andCanada was respectively discussed by
two presentations: “White lies: Centring
Māori Women in the Reform of
Prostitution Legislation and Policy” wasmade by Fern Eyles, student, Massey
University, New Zealand and Jade Kake(Ngāpuhi), Te Honga Centre, UNITEC
Institute of Technology, ProgrammeManager for Te Mtapihi (National Māori
Housing Advocate), Palmerston North,New
Zealand;“An
Indigenous
Grandmothers’ Initiative in Response to
Human
trafficking
forSexualExploitation of Young Aboriginal
Women” was made by Janice Cindy
Gaudet (Photo 20), Assistant Professor,
Campus Saint-Jean, University ofAlberta. Eyles and Kake explored theprostitution of Māori women as a
product of colonization and comparable
to other indicators of social deficit, while
Gaudet presented the culturally-based
effortsofNookimisakNangdowenjgewad, in which a corecircle of Anishinaabek grandmothers
and frontline workers began to address
sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of
women in Anishinaabek communities.
In other words, Eyles and Kake sought aresolution by urging the national
government of New Zealand to protect
the treaty-based rights of Māori women,
while Gaudet highlighted the efforts ofIndigenous women to tackle the80

problem of human trafficking facingthem. In her presentation “A World
Apart with Shared History: Norwegian
Sápmi and Indigenous Australia:
Colonisation,
Consequences,
andEmpowerment”, Nina Sivertsen, Ph.D,
College of Nursing and Health Sciences,
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
mentioned that the Sami people ofNorthern Norway and Indigenous
Australians share a common fate as
Indigenous minorities, emerging from
centuries of internal colonization andharsh assimilation policies. Sivertsen
admired Indigenous women’s fighting
for their rights and security on the frontline in such adverse circumstances.
Lastly, Satu Gröndahl examined theemergence of new kinds of Sami identity
as described in the novels of two Sami
female authors, through analyzing
female protagonists appearing in thosenovels. Her presentation “Creating
Modern Sámi Identity” highlighted, in
an inspiring way, new developments in
the identity formation of Indigenous
peoples. Those presentations were ablyinterpreted by Madoka Hammine, PhD
student, University of Lapland, Yuito
Okada, Master student, University of
Hawaiʽi, Ayako Tominari, Associate
Professor, Hokkaido University, and
Makoto Shimizu.

Photo 20. Janice Cindy Gaudet (right)
made a presentation with interpreter
Madoka Hammine (left)

Day 3
There were eight presentations in thesession of exploitation of natural
resources in Indigenous communities
and Indigenous peoples’ resistance,
which was chaired by Marie Persson
Njajta and me in the morning on 4
December. Two Ainu elder activists:
Satoshi Hatakeyama and Koichi
Kaizawa presented problems faced bythem with interpretation by Takashi
Oda, who had worked for Ainu people
as aninterpreter. Hatakeyama’spresentation was titled “Towards
Restoring Our Indigenous Right to
Whaling in Japan”. He is the only Ainu
who has claimed the right to Indigenous
whaling on the coast of the Sea of
Okhotsk despite current prohibition by
the authorities. Kaizawa’s presentation
was “After the 1997 Court’s Decision
over the Nibutani Dam Case”. He is the
only survivor of the Ainu plaintiffs who
contested the planned Nibutani Dam in81his community against the authorities.
Four young researchers: Anna Petrétei,Assi Harkoma, Giuseppe Amatulli fromthe NIEM, Rovaniemi Finland andCatherine Moriarity, UiT, The Arctic
University of Norway, paid attention tointernational human rights standards toguarantee a full involvement ofIndigenous peoples in decisions
affecting them when planning andimplementing mining and otherextractive industrial projects. The titlesof those four presentations were as
follows: “Resource Development in the
Sápmi Region: Integration of Human
Rights Impact Assessment in Licensing
Processes” (Anna Petrétei), “How
Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous
PeopleCan ContributetotheConservation
andProtectionofBiodiversity”(Assi
Harkoma),“Promoting Sustainable Development in
Indigenous Communities through the
Implementation of the Principle of Free,
Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) andthe Use of Traditional Ecological
Knowledge(TEK)”(Giuseppe
Amatulli), and “Securing Rights: theDuty to Consult and Indigenous
Engagement in the Canadian Legal
System” (Catherine Moriarity).
As far as two Indigenous scholars: June
L Lorenzo, Ph. D, member of Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment
and Indigenous World Association, andMichell Daigle, Assistant Professor,
University of British Columbia areconcerned, their studies have raised aquestion of the mainstream legal system.
Lorenzo wrote in the abstract of her
presentation “Contradictions Abound:
Reflections on Impacts of Nuclear Policy
on New Mexico Indigenous Peoples”
that “using multiple viewpoints to
examine the presence of uranium
miningandnuclearenergyinfrastructure among Laguna Pueblo
and other Indigenous peoples in New
Mexico, I will relate the juxtaposition ofIndigenous values with colonialmandates” (Centre for Environmental
and Minority Policy Studies 2017: 50).
Daigle wrote in her abstract “Resurging
through
Kistachowan:
Indigenous
Water Governance at the Heart ofColonial Empire” that “Mushkegowuk
water governance is obstructed bycolonial jurisdictions and forms of
citizenship” (Centre for Environmental
and Minority Policy Studies 2017: 52).
After the conference, I realized that we
can’t understand article 25 of the
UNDRIP 2 without Daigle’s andLorenzo’s presentations. Lorenzo recallsa moment when they were working to
finalize the wording of article 25, stating:

Article 25 of the UNDRIP reads: Indigenous Peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their
distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands,
territories, waters, and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future
generations in this regard.
282

It captures the essence of what
Indigenous Peoples, who live indiverse geographies, have incommon: a diverse spiritual
relationship “with lands, territories,
waters and coastal seas.” Many
Indigenous representatives insisted
on
use
of
the
word
“responsibilities,” but some State
representatives failed to understandits place in a rights-centereddocument.
We
insisted
andexplained our responsibility as
stewards to provide for future
generations so that they might
continue this relationship…We
prevailed on this issue (Lorenzo
2017: 12).
Daigle has been involved in thedevelopment of new models of
Indigenous
co-governanceandstewardship for water resources that
include Indigenous voices, sciences andontologies at the core of sustainable
water resources planning, policy
development, and regulatory decisionmaking (Decolonizing Water). Article 25
must be materialized by Daigle andLorenzo.
The session of linguistic and culturalrevitalization led by Indigenous peoples
ran parallel to the session of exploitationof natural resources in Indigenous
communities. On 5 December, the
Hokkaido Shimbun Press reported thesession of linguistic and culturalrevitalization by exemplifying Shiro
Kayano’sand
Leena
Huss’spresentations (Photo 21). Shiro Kayano,director, Kayano Shigeru Ainu Culture
Museum, was quoted as saying in his
presentation “The Right of the Ainu
People to Learn the Ainu Language” thatthe official recognition of the Ainu
language as an official language in
Hokkaido must help spread the Ainu
language. Leena Huss was reported tohave spoken in her presentation “This Is
a Beginning, We Must Start Somewhere!
– The Work of the Sami Language Centre
in Sweden for Language Revitalisation”
that two language centers in the
traditional South Sami Language areas
set up in 2010 in accordance with the
Law on National Minorities andMinority Languages in Sweden havebeen positively tackling with language
revitalization and that they haveborrowed and developed further
advanced revitalization programmes
from other countries. Additionally, I
asked Masumi Tanaka and Tatsiana
Tsagelnik, Ph.D. student, Hokkaido
University, to assist a journalist from the
Hokkaido
ShimbunPress
withinterviewing Indigenous artists in
English as well as interpreting every
English presentation into Japanese at theconference. As a result, the journalist
was able to report in detail every day
throughout the five-day art andacademic event.

83

Photo 21. The Hokkaido Shimbun Press
reported the session of linguistic andcultural revitalization with a photo of
the banquet on 5 December 2017
Artists’participation
International Conference

in

the

In general, art and research sharesomething in common in that they makewhat can’t be visibly seen. Art
instinctively moves people to bear
Indigenous issues in mind, while thescientific research presented instills
attendees with a theoretical frameworkof the issues at hand. In Sapporo, artists
and researchers collaborated with theaim of directing Indigenous policy
towards
decolonization,
ensuring
Indigenous peoples’ rights, security andlivelihood. Artists actively participatedin the international conference throughexhibiting their artworks at the venue,
performing music at breaks (Photo 22),
making a presentation (“Methdology of
Storytelling to Heal Trauma of
Indigenous Peoples” by Katarzyna
Pastuszak), actively joining discussions,and hosting a concluding session
chaired by Tomas Colbengtson. In

addition to contributing to the academic
content of the conference through newperspectives, their participation madethe atmosphere warm and welcoming,and consequently, helped connecting
participants to each other. Additionally,
thanks to international Indigenous
artists’ participation, the art andacademic event was well-publicizedboth in Japan and Sweden (Photo 23).
However, in spite of our attempt tocombine art and research on equal terms,
there ended up being less room at theconference venue for art presentations.

Photo 22. Torgeir Vassvik (left), Utae
Ehara (centre), and Louise Fontain(right) improvised at a break

Photo 23. Marie Persson Njajta wasinterviewed by a TV crew after her
speech84

Extended programmes
In addition to the art and academic
event,
wehad
twoextendedprogrammes: an excursion to Nibutani
in Biratori, the birthplace of Ainu
studies, and public lectures at Sapporo
Freedom School, a NPO, given by two
Japanese promising researchers, whostudy abroad and presented at theinternational conference. In March 2017,
my friend Atsuko Kumagai, member of
the Council for Invigorating Local
Communities in Biratori, started
creating a two-day excursion to Nibutani
for us in cooperation with the town
office. Thanks to her fun and witty tour,
fourteeninternational
researchers/artists,
includingme,enjoyed meeting local Ainu people andlearning living Ainu culture at theexcursion. In response to my request,
public lectures were willingly given by
Yuito Okada, University of Hawaiʿi, andMadoka Hammine, University of
Lapland, Finland. Their presentations –“Cutting-edge Medical Science andIndigenous Studies” by Okada and“Educated not to be Able to Speak Your
Own Language?” by Hammine - showed
that
their
studiesaremoreinterdisciplinary and ethical than mostJapanese Indigenous studies, which
often feature a non-interdisciplinary
approach
and
lack
of
ethicalrequirement. In addition, the excursion
was not created by us, but by local
people. The public lectures were alsoplanned by the Sapporo Freedom
School. From our perspective, these
extended programmes served to sharesome outcomes of the art and academic
event with local people and civil society.
Distinguishing features of the art andacademic event
What further differentiates the art andacademic event from other international
conferences is that the event was
supported by many people. Not only
organizing committee members but also
steering committee ones had devoted
themselves to bringing this event tofruition for months as follows: Two Ainu
designers named Tomoko Mitsuno andYoko Sasaki designed the front and backcovers of the abstract book incollaboration with Tomas Colbengtson(Photo 24); Another Ainu designer,
Chiyomi Fujioka designed the namecards of participants in collaboration
with her colleague Ayaka Ishii; Core
volunteerinterpreters,
including
Ritsuko Hirose, Kazuko Backhouse,
Makoto Shimizu and Misao Matsumura,translated English abstracts to Japanese,organized the venue for participants andinterpreted presentations/conversations
in collaboration with Jeff Gayman and
Kenichiro Hirose; Those Japanesetranslations
were
proofreadbyKenichiro Hirose, Associate Professor,
Kagoshima
Immaculate
Heart
University; Two old friends of mine
Tatsuo Ohkubo and Kimihiko Maekawa

85

helped us to document presentations,and Hiroyuki Domon helped register
participants at the reception with Ainu
women, voluntary interpreters andstudents; My young American friend
Andrew Schirmer edited the call for
papers and abstracts; Kunihiko Yoshida,
Professor of public law, Hokkaido
University successfully negotiated with
Hokkaido University for use of thevenue gratis; Kenichi Matsuoka, former
president of the Muroran Institute ofTechnology, solicited donations fromnine companies in Sapporo.

such as Yoko Sasaki, Tomoko Mitsuno,
Akiko Tahara, Kayo Tsukiyama andYoko Kawakami. Volunteer interpreters,
including Ngaroma Riley, Ayako
Tominari, Madoka Hammine, and Yuito
Okada, interpreted presentations. Manyother volunteer interpreters assisted thecore volunteer interpreters in helping
Ainu participants to understand English
presentationsbywhisperinginJapanese, and facilitated conversations
between international artists/researchersand Ainu participants. Around 40
people, mostly my friends, donated to us
from their purses in response to myrequest. As a result, nearly threequarters of the costs of the art andacademic event was covered bydonations. Delicious Ainu food for thebanquet (Photo 25) was cooked by seven
Ainu women: Hiromi Abe, Satoe Imai,
Ayaka Ishii, Kyoko Kagaya, Masako
Kawanami, Yukari Naganawa andRyoko Fujioka. Lastly, around 110
people participated in the banquet withmany participants remaining at thevenue for a long time after closing. I was
reluctant to leave as well.

Photo 24. The front cover of the abstract
book
symbolizedanAinu-Sami
collaboration
Furthermore, without other volunteers’contributions, the art and academic
event could not have been realized. The
reception was managed by Ainu women86good thing: I don't think I have everbeen together with so many all ofthem very nice, kind,friendly
people before. I already missed
them after saying goodbye.”Acknowledgements

Photo 25. 110 Participants performed an
Ainu circle dance at the banquet (Bycourtesy of Antonie Grahamsdaughter)I am closing this essay with a quote fromthe letter I received after the excursion to
Nibutani from Arnaq Grove, Associate
Professor,
Nutserinermut
Oqaluttaanermullu/DepartmentofTranslation&
Interpreting,IIisimatusarfik/University of Greenland:I´m very impressed that you andyour organizing group succeeded
to make a good program and also
to mix academic and non-academic
participants. I think that’s why theatmosphere was so extremely good
during all the conference (and ourtour to Nibutani)… My personalview is that academic work will
miss a lot of value if it is notintertwined with our emotions... So
your idea and the way to organize
it was exceptionally good andsuccessful… And wonderful towitness how the Sami and the Ainu
found each other as a family
reunion. And finally yet another

The five-day art and academic event
passed in the twinkling of an eye. I waswondering for a while whether it was
only a dream. In retrospect, a lot ofthings happened in the preparation
process. Whenever facing any challenge,organizing
committee
members
continued encouraging me to move
forward. As time passed, steeringcommittee members stepped in andaddressed practical matters. It is,therefore, entirely due to all of them, as
well as other Ainu women, presentersand volunteers, that the event was
managed. My special thanks go to the
Embassy of Sweden and the Embassy of
Norway in Tokyo, and the city of
Sapporo for their nominal support forus, the Embassy of Poland in Tokyo for
its financial support for Amareya
Theatre, the Office for Contemporary
Art Norway for its financial support forTorgeir Vassvik, and Japanstiftelsen andEstrid Ericsons stiftelse for their financial
support for Tomas Colbengtson.
Although I can’t mention everyone byname, I would like to take thisopportunity to express my deepest
gratitude to all the people who wereinvolved in the event. As the end of this87

acknowledgement, I would like to give
thanks to Leena Huss, Andrew Schirmer
and Maile Taualii for editing.

References
Anaya, S James. 2009, The Right ofIndigenous
Peoplesto
SelfDetermination in the Post-Declaration
Era. In Claire Charters and Rodolfo
Stavenhagen(eds.),
MakingtheDeclaration Work: The Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
IWGIA, Copenhagen. pp. 184-197.

Lorenzo L June. 2017. Spatial Justice andIndigenous Peoples’ Protection of Sacred
Places: Adding Indigenous Dimentions
totheConversation.
https://www.jssj.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/03/JSSJ11_5_VA.p
df
Accessed on 20 January 2018.

Centre for Environmental and Minority
Policy Studies. 2017, 2017 Indigenous
Art
Workshop&International
Conferenceon
Policytowards
Indigenous Peoples: Lessons to be
LearnedDaes Erica-Irene A. 2008, An Overview
of the History of Indigenous Peoples:
Self-Determination and the United
Nations,
Cambridge
ReviewofInternational Affairs, Vol. 21, no. 1, pp.
7-26.
Decolonising
Water.
https://www.wcel.org/sites/default/files/publications/Water%20Governance%20
and%20Indigenous%20Law%20FINAL.
pdf
Accessed on 20 January 2018.

88