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Week 2023
International Symposium

Indigenous People and Museums～ Crafting voices of Indigenous peoples ～Sunday, 3 December 2023
Hokkaido University Conference Hall & Zoom･✧･━･✧･━･✧･ PROGRAM ･✧･━･✧･━･✧･
09:40

Doors Open

10:00-10:05

Opening Remarks | Prof Hirofumi Kato, Director of GSI, Hokkaido University

10:05-10:10

Message from the Australian Embassy Tokyo

10:10-10:15

Greetings | Dr Kanako Uzawa, Ainu representative, Hokkaido University & the University of Oslo

10:15-10:45

yukar (Ainu oral literature) & Response | Ms Haruna Yazaki & members of the Australian delegation

10:45-11:05

Presentation 1 ‘The National Ainu Museum’s approach to the Ainu Language’Ms Haruna Yazaki, the National Ainu Museum (the Foundation for Ainu Culture)

11:05-11:25

Presentation 2 ‘My Grandfather, My Father, and I – A Role of Each of Us’
Mr Kenyu Yamamaru (Keni), the National Ainu Museum (the Foundation for Ainu Culture)

11:25-11:45

Presentation 3 ‘Dancing with museum objects – Exploring Ainu Indigeneity in a museum space
through Ainu collections-’
Dr Kanako Uzawa, Hokkaido University & the University of Oslo

11:45-12:15

Discussion | Ms Haruna Yazaki, Mr Kenyu Yamamaru (Keni), & Dr Kanako Uzawa

12:15-13:45❖ Lunch (90 mins) ❖13:45-14:05

Presentation 4 ‘Museums as interfaces of authority and knowledge – an Australian experience’
Dr Michael Pickering, Hokkaido University & Australian National University

14:05-14:25

Presentation 5 ‘Mapping the collection store and making it a place for people’
Dr Vanessa Russ, the University of Melbourne

14:25-14:45

Presentation 6 ‘Museums and ancestral futures – new modes of cultural work’
Dr Jilda Andrews, Australian National University❖ Tea break (30 mins) ❖14:45-15:15
15:15-16:00

Conversation ‘The changing Indigenous art centre model: reclaiming processes of culturalexpression outside of western needs’
Ms Mayatili Marika, the University of Melbourne & Mr Kade McDonald, Agency,
moderated by Dr Jilda Andrews, Australian National University

16:00-17:30

Panel Discussion and Q & A session | All Contributors

17:30-17:45

Closing Remarks | Prof Hirofumi Kato, Hokkaido University

17:45-18:00

Closing Ceremony※Simultaneous interpretationin both English and Japaneseis available.

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Ms Haruna Yazaki
Haruna was born in 1987 in Tomakomai, Hokkaido. She is a Research and Curatorial Fellow(Curator) at Collection Management Division, Research & Curatorial Department of the
National Ainu Museum (the Foundation for Ainu Culture). Haruna’s areas of specialization are
the Oral Literature of the Ainu People and the Ainu Language. In 2019, she completed course
credits for the doctoral program of the Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University
before withdrawal. She worked at the former Ainu Museum (Porotokotan) since 2011, which
was located on the bank of Lake Poroto in Shiraoi. In 2018 she joined the Foundation for Ainu
Culture to work for the Preparatory Office for the Establishment of the National Museum. She
started her current position in 2020 together with the opening of the Museum.
Title ‘The National Ainu Museum’s approach to the Ainu Language’
Abstract Ainu is the language of the Ainu people and has been spoken in the northern part of the Japanese archipelago
and surrounding areas. However, since the Meiji era (1868-1912), the Ainu language has been gradually cut off from daily
life due to Japanese assimilation policies. In 2009, UNESCO designated it as an " Endangered Language " and recognized it
as "Critically Endangered ".
Under these circumstances, as a center for the revival and development of Ainu culture, Upopoy: National Ainu Museum
and Park has positioned the Ainu language as its first language. Ainu appears first on all information displays, including thenames of facilities and rooms at the National Museum and the National Park. The Museum also uses Ainu for major
information panels in the Permanent Exhibition Room.
Various issues need to be considered such as dialects and notation methods, not to mention how to express new words
such as the names of facilities and some words in guide signs. To meet these challenges, various groups of people
participate in the consideration and decision-making process: the Ainu-language expert staff in Upopoy, external Ainu
language researchers, Ainu language learners and practitioners, including many Ainu themselves. In this presentation, I
will discuss some of these efforts, especially those related to information displays and exhibition texts.

Mr Kenyu Yamamaru (Keni)Management Office of the National Ainu Museum and Park, The Foundation for Ainu Culture
Keni was born in Shiraoi and is now 29 years old. When Keni was 20 years old, heparticipated in a three-year training program for Ainu to become a traditional cultural
inheritor where he studied Ainu culture comprehensively. Through this program, Kenibecame interested in the Ainu language and began to deepen the knowledge, and later
became an instructor for STV Ainu language radio program and for introductory Ainu
language courses for town residents. Currently, Keni works at Upopoy National Ainu Museum
and Park, develops and implements Ainu language programs for visitors. Aside from thelanguage, Keni has been developing a career as an illustrator. His designs are currently usedfor vending machines within Upopoy.
Title ‘My Grandfather, My Father, and I — A Role of Each of Us’
Abstract In this presentation, I will report on the importance of museums as a cultural institution to the local Ainu
community, referring to my own family history as an example, and discuss how we can connect to the next generation in
the future. Three generations of my family: me, my father and my grandfather, have all worked at the Ainu Museum
which was in our community. It sounds like, on the surface, that we had inherited a great deal of Ainu culture within thefamily, but that was not the case.My grandfather, who was a member of the town council, came to work at the Ainu
Museum to contribute to the tourism sector, while my father came to work at the museum to support his family. Thoughreasons may vary, the existence of the museum allowed my grandfather, father, and I some time and occasion to face ouridentity and Ainu culture. Reflecting on my own story, I will share my thoughts on what role the museum -- now known as
Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park-- can play for the local Ainu community and for the coming generations to face
their culture and roots.

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Dr Kanako Uzawa
Assistant Professor, GSI, Hokkaido University
Associated Researcher, The Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo
Dr. Kanako Uzawa is an Ainu scholar, artist, and rights advocate. She is the founder of
AinuToday, a global online platform that delivers living Ainu culture and people. She is an
Assistant Professor for the Global Station for Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity at
Hokkaido University (GSI) in Japan. Her most recent work engages with Ainu art exhibitions,as a guest curator in collaboration with the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the
United States. In 2023, Italian artist Laura Liverani and Dr. Uzawa have produced the video art
called “Ainupuri: Liberating histories from European Ainu museum collections”, where she isalso affiliated as an associated researcher at the Museum of Cultural History at the Universityof Oslo in Norway. She is also an editorial board member of AlterNative: an International
Journal of Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand, Aotearoa.
During her youth, she encountered negative representations and discrimination towards the Ainu and discovered a stark
contrast between the general public view and her people. She began to wonder what does it mean to be Ainu in thetwenty-first century? This gave her motivation to explore a way to express the contemporary livelihood of the Ainu.
She obtained her master in Indigenous Studies in 2008 and doctorate degree in Community Planning and Cultural
Understanding from the UiT Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø in 2020. She’s held an internship in the Project toPromote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (PRO 169) at the International Labour Organisation, Geneva
Switzerland. She contributes to collaborative research and Ainu performing art on the multifaceted articulations of
Indigenous knowledge through museums and theaters as artist.
Title ‘Dancing with museum objects – Exploring Ainu Indigeneity in a museum space through Ainu collections-’
Abstract This presentation will explore a new way of understanding the term Ainu Indigeneity by opening up space forfurther discussion on how we can find our narratives and new expressions in museum space with focus on the Ainu
collection. The presentation will make a reference to the most recent projects: 1) Ainu art exhibition project incollaboration with the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the United States and 2) The video art project on the Ainu
collection in the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo in Norway. By this, Uzawa will share a new way ofgiving our own narratives to the historical Ainu collections in museums, and furthermore discussing how we can transfer
Ainu Indigeneity to the next generation.

Dr Michael Pickering
Associate Professor, GSI, Hokkaido University, Japan
Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian
National University
Partner, Centre for Australian Studies, Cologne University, Germany
Since mid-2022, Dr Michael Pickering has been an independent researcher with a focus onFirst Nations Heritage. He has worked extensively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderorganizations, State and Territory heritage agencies, and museums across Australia over 45
years. Dr Pickering moved to the National Museum of Australia as the Director of theRepatriation Program in 2001, later holding different positions. From 2018 to 2022 he was the
Senior Repatriation Advisor at the National Museum of Australia.
He has a wide range of research interests and has published articles on topics ranging frommaterial culture, cannibalism, settlement patterns, museum exhibitions, museum ethics,
workplace health and safety, and repatriation.
Title ‘Museums as interfaces of authority and knowledge – an Australian experience’
Abstract Every museum, art gallery, or university has its own internal culture. They have systems of governance andproject implementation that are guided by that internal culture. Like all cultures, they reproduce themselves, generally
promulgating a conservative approach to certain issues over time.

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One outcome of this is that the concerns and contributions of Indigenous people, both as staff and as external interest
groups, are often explicitly under-represented. Indigenous input is managed, mediated, and moderated, often to the pointof sterilization of content. Indigenous driven change is rejected, while trends to conservative ‘traditional’ and inoffensive
representations of culture prevail.
This paper will look at some of the issues that have arisen in the author's experience as a curator, researcher, andcorporate manager.

Dr Vanessa Russ
Director of Indigenous Collections of the University of Melbourne
Dr Vanessa Russ is the Director of Indigenous Collection, Museums & Collections. A former
Research Fellow in Indigenous Studies at the Melbourne School of Population and Global
Health; and Associate Director of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University ofWestern Australia.
Dedicated to providing visionary leadership within the arts and culture sector, with aparticular interest in the visual arts. Focusing on cross-disciplinary practices that enhance
the rematriation of Aboriginal Australian cultural knowledge to people from communities oforigin for future generations; whilst celebrating the benefits of understanding the world's
oldest living cultures for all Australians.
Russ is a Ngarinyin-Gija women from the Kimberley Region, Western Australia. Her recent publication A History of
Aboriginal Art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2021) accords with her wider interest in reframing art and history
from an Aboriginal Australian worldview. She is also a 2014 Churchill Fellow, inaugural Asialink Leaders Indigenous Fellow(Asialink) and Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Oversight Committee, University of
Melbourne.
Title ‘Mapping the collection store and making it a place for people’
Abstract Museums are designed with exhibition spaces and cafes, and collection stores that no one gets to visit. Any
museum with Aboriginal cultural material in it today also includes visits to the collection store. It’s a privilege to visit with
an Elder who might as they pass sing to the objects they see having remembered the song of their creator or the country
from which that object comes from. On their departure, it can feel like the object was just as happy to see them too. As
the University of Melbourne works towards a new home for its Indigenous Collections, the strategy for the Place for
Indigenous Art and Culture started with the principle that objects have feelings too. This paper unpacks this work andpresents on the new museum model that is best for Australian Aboriginal people in a time of deep divide.

Dr Jilda Andrews
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University Yuwaalaraay/Euahlayi Nation
Dr Jilda Andrews is a First Nations Yuwaalaraay woman, cultural practitioner and researcher
based in Canberra, Australia. Jilda draws from her heritage to investigate the connectednessof land, story and culture to objects in museum collections. Her focus on material culture andtheir associated stories continue to push the definition of custodianship, from one which is
focused on the preservation of objects, to one which strives to maintain connections between
objects and the systems which produce them.
Title ‘Museums and ancestral futures – new modes of cultural work-’
Abstract This presentation will demonstrate a new method of museum collections research,developed in line with an Indigenous land management tool known as ‘cool burning’. Here I
will explore ways that regenerative cultural land management practices can be extended and applied to the tangled andovergrown environment of museum archives and collections. By considering collections research as ‘regenerative’, it ispossible to productively reframe cultural material as a contemporary tool and active in producing new knowledges. Suchan approach gives historical collections an important role in the making of strong, continuing cultural futures.

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Ms Mayatili Marika
The University of Melbourne
Mayatili Marika (she/her) is a Rirratjingu Traditional Owner and Yolŋu woman
based in north-east Arnhem Land.
Mayatili currently works in Indigenous strategy in the Chancellery at the Universityof Melbourne. She has worked in community, grassroots and government entities
across health, justice and education. Mayatili believes in creating a tangible
education pipeline for Yolŋu to ensure that culture, identity and land rights endure
for future generations to come.
Mayatili has been the Production Manager at Garma for over a decade. She oversees all of the event logistics for thislarge scale First Nations festival and works across the diverse stakeholders to ensure that cultural protocols are upheld.
Mayatili belongs to one of the great artistic and political dynasties of Australia: her father is Wandjuk Marika OBE and her
grandfather is Mawalan Marika. Her father was instrumental in the international recognition of Aboriginal art, travelingaround the world to promote Indigenous culture. As chair of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council he played
an important role in advocating for the founding of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre. The Marika family is strongly
represented in the Madayin exhibition, as well as museum collections around the world.

Mr Kade McDonald
CEO, Agency
Kade McDonald is the CEO and founder of Agency - a not-for-profit organisation which heestablished in response to an identified need, with the full support and permission ofIndigenous cultural leaders and members of the Agency Board.
Prior to starting Agency, Kade was the Executive Director of Durrmu Arts Aboriginal
Corporation for three years and the Coordinator for Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts and Cultural
Centre for six years. He has been engaged as a cultural consultant for several years
implementing cultural maintenance and repatriation projects in collaboration with
Community leaders, having worked across Arnhem Land, the Kimberley and the Tiwi Islands.
Kade has been appointed to the Visual Arts Grants selection committee for the Ministry for
the Arts, Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria and Arts NT Visual Arts Board for his knowledge on Indigenous
Contemporary Arts, and is currently an appointed Expert Examiner of Indigenous Cultural Objects for the Moveable
cultural Heritage Act on behalf of the Federal Government and the Department of Communications and the Arts. He holds
a Diploma of Business Governance through the Institute of Company Directors and is a Honorary Research Fellow at the
Melbourne University’s Centre of Visual Art (CoVA).
Theme ‘The changing Indigenous art centre model: reclaiming processes of cultural expression outside of western needs’
Abstract For too long, Indigenous Australian art centres have been valued principally as a foundation of art making andsales. This has in part arisen from the flourishing Australian art industry and the increasing global demand on Indigenousart and craft production.
Today, art centres as Indigenous-led enterprises have evolved to support a range of important cultural activities thatgenerate dynamic cultural outputs – only some of which are made to meet market-demands. Other outputs include
comprehensive archives of Indigenous knowledge, libraries, and repositories for collections of significant cultural material,some of which are still used in ceremony and cultural practice today.
As art centres increasingly play this role of archive, issues around institutional power and control over museum
collections arise, including their ongoing management, access, conservation, preservation and repatriation. Innovative andcollaborative solutions are today being initiated and embraced by cultural leaders rather than museums, but discussions
are still limited by western constraints around concepts of property, ownership and resourcing.
This moderated discussion will explore some contemporary examples and the new modes of collaboration required tosupport Indigenous self-determination in the continuously evolving art-centre model.