The Silence of
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Assistant Professor Mai Ishihara
22 • HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
A
ssistant Professor Mai Ishihara is the first female full-time researcher at Hokkaido University’s Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies (CAIS) and is the first female faculty member who openly reveals her Ainu ancestry. As a quarter-Ainu, Ishihara talked about how she had been subdued by her own ignorance, and later by silence, of her Ainu ancestry. She transformed her struggle and her views on the pain faced by her Ainu (indigenous people of Hokkaido) ancestors into a book based on her long-term research. Ishihara reminisced about the moment when she had just learned about her Ainu ancestry. At the age of 12, her mother revealed the story of her bloodline and added that she ought not to reveal the fact to other people unless they have a certain amount of knowledge in the history of Hokkaido and Ainu people. Henceforth, Ishihara led her life as a “Silent Ainu.” Ishihara coined and used this term to refer to people who are aware of their Ainu heritage, but do not know how to address this no matter how much they want to talk about it. “I was taken aback by that revelation. Up until that point, I had grown up with zero contact with anything that is related to Ainu. My mother chose to bring up the subject out of the fear that I would have grown up with discriminatory perspectives towards the Ainu people — including my own ancestors,” said Ishihara. Ishihara had only started to publicly come out about her ancestry in her 20s. However, after telling people around her, Ishihara realized that most of them were unable to exhibit deeper understanding about this fact. She came to see that the struggle and the pain caused by the marginalization towards the indigenous people need to be widely addressed. “Japan is widely believed to be monocultural. On the other hand, I can see that the Japanese government is trying to embrace multiculturalism. Coexistence is beginning to be seen as an essential element to handle the demographic problem, such as the low fertility rate and the decreasing population. We are just entering the beginning phase of this discussion,” explained Ishihara. Compared to previous decades, when revealing one’s Ainu ancestry
