Voice of the Ainu speaks to the people (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Voice of the Ainu speaks to the people
05/22/2006

BY EIJI ZAKODA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200605220128.html

BIRATORI, Hokkaido--There was a time when the Ainu culture seemed nearly
extinct, drowned in the long-standing Japanese assimilation policy.

Now a new wave is swelling.

A tiny community FM radio station that opened five years ago in
Biratori, southern Hokkaido, is keeping the Ainu voice alive and
reaching audiences on a global scale.

And the local community of Nibutani, where the station is based, has
become a global gathering place for the international movement to
protect indigenous culture.

In fact, almost 10 years since the passing of the Law for the Promotion
of Ainu Culture and Dissemination and Advocacy of Ainu Traditions, Ainu
culture is practically blossoming.

A new generation of leaders is eager to follow in the footsteps of
Shigeru Kayano, who until his death on May 6 at 79 had been the
undisputed voice of the Ainu for as long as most people could remember.

Kayano became the first Diet member of Ainu descent in 1994, and acted
as representative for the Ainu radio station.

"Listen to our radio broadcast and you can actually hear the language
that has been revived," Kayano said in an interview shortly before his
death.

"Words fly to you through the air. It is my dear wish that the Ainu
words will reach listeners and tell our story."

Kayano's son, Shiro, is one of several volunteers who now make broadcast
content for the station.

"I know that our broadcast won't boost the number of Ainu speakers
immediately," Shiro, 47, said.

"But there is great significance in sending out word of our Ainu culture
to the wider world."

The idea for the station came to the elder Kayano when he heard of
indigenous people in Canada who have radio programs in their own
language.

He chose Nibutani library, near his house, to house the station. In
April 2001, it went on the air.

Though officially called FM-Nibutani, around here people call it
FM-Pipaushi, meaning "a place with many shells."

Shiro contributes to a monthly hourlong variety show of folk tales, Ainu
epic poetry called yukara, Ainu language lessons and tongue twisters,
and local news in both Ainu and Japanese.

On one day there might be an interview with a local elder recounting
tales of times past; on another a graduate student from Alaska might
speak about education for indigenous people.

Pipaushi is a community FM station, so the broadcast can only be heard
only locally. Thanks to the Internet, though, it can attract listeners
worldwide.

Shiro's "International Indigenous Peoples' Network" Website gets about
300 visitors for each broadcast; as of early April they had gotten
about 20,000 hits.

"It is a great idea to promote the Ainu language through the Internet,"
one Japanese person living in Seattle commented online. "I want to
learn about the Ainu," wrote a high school student in Germany.

The station now has a special wall covered with messages from various
indigenous people around the world.

Other areas in Japan are pricking up their ears. A community FM station
in Sapporo relays the Pipaushi broadcast, and just last month a Kobe
station began airing the Ainu variety program.

"The more languages you speak, the deeper understanding of others you
cultivate," said naturalist and writer C.W. Nicol, a guest on the Feb.
12 broadcast. "If the Ainu language makes a comeback, that will
certainly give more depth to the Japanese language."

"Words have a certain magic," he said. "Once you master the language,
you start feeling proud about your own roots."

Society has not always been so tolerant of the Ainu culture. Like many
minorities and indigenous peoples, the Ainu endured a history of
repression and assimilation.

In 1593, the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) officially gave the
Matsumae clan the right to govern the island of Ezo--now Hokkaido, the
ancestral Ainu homeland.

The Hokkaido Colonial Office was set up in 1869. Thirty years later, in
1899, the Meiji government enacted the Hokkaido Former Aborigines
Protection Law.

The act was essentially a major assimilation program. Certain tracts of
land were designated for Ainu people, their common property placed
under the control of the governor of Hokkaido, and education guidelines
outlined by the state.

After World War II, the Ainu took steps to assert their cultural
independence.

In 1946, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido was formed to improve the
people's livelihood and education. It was renamed Utari Kyokai in 1961.

A major step for the Ainu was Kayano's election in 1994 to a seat in the
Upper House, making him the first Diet member of Ainu descent. He was
also instrumental in getting the 1899 assimilation-oriented law
replaced in 1997 with the Ainu culture promotion law.

A Hokkaido government census two years later noted that after falling
fairly continuously from 26,256 in 1807 to a low of 15,969 in 1931, the
Ainu population in Hokkaido had increased to about 24,000 in 1999.

Much of the damage had already been done, though. The Ainu language was
hit particularly hard. Japan's unflinching assimilation policy had
almost succeeded in stamping the language out, especially during the
1970s and 1980s. Many parents simply felt beaten down, as though their
language no longer served any purpose in Japanese society. Some stopped
speaking it with their children.

Now, the Utari Kyokai offers Ainu language lessons in 14 places around
Hokkaido. The Ainu culture promotion law also supports higher-level
classes with the goal of educating future language teachers.

And Nibutani has become a gathering place for supporters of indigenous
culture around the world. In 1993 and 2005, more than 10 minorities and
indigenous groups, including Native American tribes and the Ami from
Taiwan, came together for the Nibutani Forum to discuss how to
encourage harmonious co-existence.

Even the central government is taking a few tentative steps forward. It
launched a program to revive the ioru, the traditional Ainu living
space.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, together with the
Agency for Cultural Affairs, has budgeted 50 million yen to start the
project in fiscal 2006 in Shiraoi, southwest Hokkaido.

The whole ioru, including the chise house at the center, will be
recreated.

The living space is closely intertwined with the natural environment, a
harmony that Ainu culture emphasizes strongly.

A new forest will be planted in Shiraoi, with 16 kinds of trees and 22
other plant species, including the cattail used in the making of
special ornaments and garments for use in traditional Ainu ceremonies.

Despite all this, the road ahead will be tough for Ainu culture. The
bitter truth is that few fluent native Ainu speakers remain.

Shigeru Kayano was one of them.

"There was a time when we almost lost our language because they only
taught Japanese at our schools," he said.

"However, now we have textbooks and dictionaries. Times have changed.
People can now learn the language, if they wish to do so."

He called language "the symbol of a people."

"It is the soul. As long as we keep our language alive, our soul will
continue on its shining path."(IHT/Asahi: May 22,2006)