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Image Credit: "Foot Journey in Ezo" (Ezo no Shimabumi), Fujiwara Yoshitaka, [Japan, not before 1815], Fragments. Library of Congress. Photo courtesy: Maggie Ivanova

“Frontier Legacies:
Hokkaido and Native American Experiences”

​
A Fall 2021 Webinar Series

​Due to lasting travel restrictions related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, JSA was unable to offer its workshop "Hokkaido 2020: Diversity, Transformation, Renewal," originally scheduled to be held in Hokkaido, Japan, in June 2020 and postponed till June 2021.

​Instead, we are pleased to offer a fall 2021 Webinar series which explores comparatively: 1) the "frontier" legacy of the Japanese settlement in Hokkaido and experiences of the Ainu with those of Native American experiences in the United States, including Alaska, and 2) indigeneity in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on the challenges contemporary Ainu and Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawai'ian) communities face and the achievements they celebrate.

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​

Sponsored by:
The Japan Studies Association

     With generous support from:
     The University of Hawai’i Center for
          Japanese Studies
​     The Japan Foundation

     University of Kansas Center for East   
          Asian Studies
​     Johnson County Community College

Webinar Facilitators:
​Professor Dawn Gale, JCCC (email)
Professor Paul Dunscomb, University of Alaska Anchorage (email)

Image Credit: "Foot Journey in Ezo" (Ezo no Shimabumi), Fujiwara Yoshitaka, [Japan, not before 1815], Fragment. Library of Congress. Photo courtesy: Maggie Ivanova

Featured Speakers:
​
Dr. Holly Guise, University of New Mexico 
"Looking North: Alaska Native Pacific Histories"


Indigenous Alaskan history and the relationship between US colonial projects in the continental US and Alaska is not well understood. This presentation will integrate excerpts from elder oral histories that Dr. Guise conducted. Her community-based oral history of Alaska Native elders highlights the era of Alaskan segregation, wartime Alaska including Unangax̂ relocation and incarceration, and the boarding school era.  She seeks to center Alaska as an Indigenous land where US settler colonial projects carried forth throughout the 20th century. 

Professor Guise received her Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 2018. Her manuscript in progress, “World War II and the First Peoples of the Last Frontier: Alaska Native Voices and Wartime Alaska” focuses on gender, Unangax̂ (Aleut) relocation and internment camps, Native activism/resistance, and Indigenous military service during the war. Her research methods bridge together archives, tribal archives, community-based research, and oral histories with Alaska Native elders and veterans

      Wednesday, November 17th 3:00 EST
      Please click here to register


Dr. Chie Sakakibara, Oberlin College
“Singing for the Whales: Reclaiming History, Heritage, and Environment in Indigenous Japan and Alaska”

Professor Sakakibara will discuss community-partnered explorations of Indigenous Ainu and Iñupiaq resilience in northern Japan and Alaska in the times of global climate change. She links a variety of topics on everyday life, materiality, and movements such as environmental justice, cultural revitalization, and ethically and culturally appropriate ways of working with heritage resources. She will describe how ongoing collaborative projects with the Indigenous communities juxtapose the colonial past and the contemporary renaissance of Indigenous expressive cultures.

Professor Sakakibara is a cultural geographer with a Ph.D. from The University of Oklahoma. Her teaching and research interests lie in the human dimensions of global environmental change among indigenous peoples, specifically on their cultural resilience and socio-environmental justice. In 2020, her book, Whale Snow: Iñupiat, Climate Change, and Multispecies Resilience in Arctic Alaska (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies) appeared from the University of Arizona Press.

      Tuesday, November 2nd 3:00 p.m. EST
      Please click here to register

Dr. Vince Okada, Hawaii Pacific University
“Ainu – Cultural Revitalization and Indigenous Identity Transformations in Japan”

      Thursday, October 14th 3:00 p.m. EST

       Please click here to register

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Image credits: Left: "The mealing trough--Hopi." Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952, photographer. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. Right: "Selawik women." Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952, photographer. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication.