An ‘effective’ involvement of indigenous people in environmental impact assessment: the cultural impact assessment of the Saru river region, Japan

The Cultural Impact Assessment of the Saru River Region was the first time that a site investigation to preserve an ethnic culture regarding a dam construction was implemented in Japan. One of the project’s basic concepts was to get local residents, especially those of Ainu ethnicity, to participate in the investigation. Existing case studies of environmental impact assessment have argued that the assessment has failed to sufficiently involve Indigenous people in its process and has largely failed to incorporate Indigenous knowledge, cultural values, and voices into its processes and outcomes. Also, intangible aspects of Indigenous cultural heritage have not been protected. In the Cultural Impact Assessment of the Saru River Region, the Final Report was released in 2006 and significantly included the three-year investigation of input by local residents. In this sense, this assessment succeeded in effectively involving Indigenous people in its process and in reflecting their cultural values in its results. The more important issue is, however, how these results are included in the final outcomes. If Indigenous people have no power over final decision-making, their involvement is not effective. This paper analyses the significance and unresolved problems involved in this overall assessment process

What is a community's desire? A critical look at participatory research projects with indigenous communities

Participatory approaches have become a critical and somewhat normalised methodology in geography for working in a positive and constructive way with Indigenous communities. Nevertheless, recent literature has seldom examined the sustainability of participatory projects or looked critically at their ongoing impacts. Since the early 2000s, Nibutani, an Ainu community in Hokkaido, Japan, has developed several participatory projects led by a non-Indigenous professional. The projects have involved community members working to revitalise and promote local Ainu culture. Over the last decade, some positive outcomes from the projects have been observed; for example, the younger generation has had opportunities to engage intensively in learning local Indigenous knowledge and skills. The projects have also helped some participants to develop a stronger sense of ethnic identity and gain empowerment. Still, the power transfer from the talented non-Indigenous leader to community members has been limited and Nibutani has yet to realise a sustainable project structure. Also, community members have multiple perspectives in regard to the direction of participatory projects and their impact. I discuss these issues in Nibutani's participatory projects based on my observations and interviews and suggest that Indigenous geographies need to undertake follow-up evaluations of participatory projects

Reconsidering Indigenous rights and Indigeneity: A perspective from Fiji

This article discusses how the concept Indigenous rights have been interpreted in Fiji where Indigenous peoples are the majority and/or retain political power, by looking at the constitution, statement of politicians, and constitution reports. In Fiji, since the independence in 1970, about 87% of country’s land has been owned by Indigenous Fijians and Indigenous land rights have been protected under the constitution. Furthermore, politics has been under the control of Indigenous Fijian’s political parties with merely a few-month exception. Nevertheless, the infringement of Indigenous rights was often claimed by ethno-nationalists and the nationalists pursued Indigenous political paramountcy or ‘affirmative action’ for Indigenous Fijians, which resulted in political instability, including coups and overthrows of Indian-led regimes. Although such views are still alive among some Indigenous Fijians, the review report of the 1990 constitution and the explanatory report of the 2013 draft constitution denied Indigenous political paramountcy, while recognising land rights. The present regime also affirms that the rights of Indigenous Fijians are protected. Still in the premature stage of democracy, the country needs to enhance the awareness of (Indigenous) rights among citizens in order that other ethnic groups, particularly Indo-Fijians, will not be victimised any further

Indigenous cultural self - representation and its internal critiques: a case study of the Woodland cultural centre, Canada

This research report discusses Indigenous cultural representation in an Indigenous-run museum and its internal critiques, based on the case study of the Woodland Cultural Centre, Canada. Since its establishment in 1972, the Woodland Cultural Centre has strived to promote Indigenous culture, especially First Nations art, and has challenged general public’s and major museums’ misconceptions that Indigenous cultures are “static” and merely existed in the past. However, interviews with the Centre’s staff members suggest that the Centre’s artistic representation of Iroquoian culture has not always been successful in attracting members of supporting bands. Also, while the Centre has organized cultural events to increase Indigenous visitations, the core functions of the museum, such as research, preservation, and exhibition, are predominantly conducted by museum professionals, which suggests that the museum remains foreign to many Indigenous people

Managing the cultural promotion of indigenous people in a community-based Museum: the Ainu Culture Cluster Project at the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum, Japan

In the District of Nibutani, Town of Biratori, Hokkaido, Japan, the inheritance of Ainu culture has been in a critical condition recently, despite the long-term struggle of a famous Ainu, Kayano Shigeru. From 2002 to 2005, the town developed the Ainu Culture Cluster Project under the auspices of the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum. The Project’s goals were hiring local unemployed people to acquire traditional skills and encouraging local residents to inherit Ainu culture. This project is interesting because it demonstrates not only the ways and processes to develop, represent, promote, and inherit Ainu culture, but also the relation between the museum and the community and local residents. This paper discusses both the positive and negative aspects of the Ainu Culture Cluster Project, and explores the roles of a community-based museum for indigenous cultural promotion in contemporary society

The 2010 socioeconomic survey on the Hokkaido - gai Ainu” and issues in conducting social surveys on the Ainu and implementing Ainu policies

This article has been translated and revised from Nakamura (2015) 'Being Indigenous in a non-Indigenous environment: identity politics of the Dogai Ainu and new Indigenous policies of Japan', published in Environment and Planning A 47(3): 660-675, and freshly reviewed and published in Hokkaido Journal of Ethnology for a different readership. The Japanese Government’s 2010 socioeconomic survey of the Dogai Ainu demonstrated a socioeconomic gap between the Dogai Ainu and the majority of the Japanese. This survey also revealed the difficulty of conducting surveys of the Dogai Ainu because, in a non-Indigenous environment, many of them tend to conceal their ethnicity for fear of discrimination and hesitate to participate in surveys. While Indigenous peoples in Anglophone countries are increasingly challenging the definition of Indigeneity as imposed by outsiders and and self-identification is becoming an essential component of recognizing Indigenous belonging to reflect the reality and diversity of Indigenous identities, the case study of the Dogai Ainu suggests that Indigenous belonging cannot always be recognized by self-identification and Indigenous policies may have to be implemented without comprehensive data

A comparative analysis of the articles on the final report of the advisory council for future ainu policy

This article reviews and compares three recently-published essays on the 2009 report by the Advisory Council for Future Ainu Policy, established under the cabinet of Japan. These essays are: Tsunemoto, T. 2011. Ainu minzoku to kyoiku seisaku: Atarashii: Ainu seisaku no nagare no nakade [The Ainu and education policies: In the trend of new Ainu policies]; Yoshida, K. 2012. Ainu Minzoku no Senju Hosho Mondai: Minpogaku no Kenchi kara [The issues of compensations for Indigenous Ainu: a perspective from the civil law]; and Maruyama, H. 2012. Senju Minzoku no Jiketsuken to Biratori Dam Keikaku [Indigenous self-autonomy rights and the plan for Biratori Dam construction]. Tsunemoto was a member of the Advisory Council for Future Ainu Policy and his essay discusses the philosophy of Ainu policies and what policies can be realized under the Japan’s constitution. Both Yoshida and Maruyama criticizes the 2009 report for the lack of government’s movement to realize legally recognized Indigenous rights, including land rights, the establishment of Indigenous funds, and compensation for the past colonial policies. Yoshida and Maruyama also criticises the government for its reluctance to enact a new Ainu law to guarantee indigenous rights, even after Japan’s ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The author, however, supports Tsunemoto’s argument, which suggests feasibility of searching for the foundation of new Ainu policies in the existing legal frameworks and trying to guarantee some elements of indigenous rights. Japan’s case suggests the possibility of realising indigenous rights without the enactment of a specific law, in particular under democracy, where Indigenous peoples as minority groups have to rely on the majority of non-Indigenous people for making political decision

Problems in the repatriation of Ainu human remains: a comparison between Japan and the United States of America

Recently the repatriation of indigenous human remains from former colonial research institutions to indigenous peoples has been widely observed globally. In Japan, since the 1980s, the Ainu have demanded the return of Ainu human remains and in 2012, a legal action was launched against Hokkaido University, who has long failed to accommodate the demand of the Ainu. Japanese universities still keep some 1600 Ainu human remains. The national government proposed a plan to transfer all such human remains to the new memorial hall to be constructed in Shiraoi, by 2020, but the Ainu advocates are requesting the remains to be returned to the Ainu. By referring to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, this article discusses the legal challenges in Ainu human remain repatriation in the context of Japan. The article also proposes a means to accelerate repatriation

Thrombocytopenia at Birth Is a Predictor of Cholestasis in Infants with Small for Gestational Age

Cholestasis and thrombocytopenia are complications that affect infants born small for gestational age (SGA). In SGA infants, other vital organs develop at the expense of the liver, and the thrombopoietin produced by the liver is low, often resulting in cholestasis. We hypothesized that thrombocytopenia at birth can be used to predict cholestasis in very-low-birth-weight infants (VLBWIs) with SGA. This retrospective cohort study enrolled VLBWIs with SGA admitted to a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. A platelet cutoff value predictive of cholestasis was determined using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the platelet cutoff value, and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Regarding the onset of cholestasis, survival analysis was performed by calculating the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs. A total of 87 infants were evaluated, and the platelet cutoff value was determined as 88×10(3) cells/μl. The adjusted OR for this platelet cutoff value was 10.52 (95% CI 2.26-55.93, p＝0.003), and the adjusted HR was 7.76 (95% CI 2.51-23.50, p＝0.0006). Thrombocytopenia is a useful predictor for cholestasis in VLBWIs with SGA

Introduction: reimagining futures

What might reimagining development futures look like and involve for development students, educators, researchers, and practitioners? In this final section of the Handbook, contributors offer a range of practices, orientations and methodologies that current and future people working in this vast and changing field might do well to consider and take on as part of re-imagining development futures beyond what we have come to know. A strong thread working through all of the chapters is the importance of attending more deeply to the peoples, knowledges, and non-human kin relations that have for far too long been relegated to development’s margins. Each chapter makes a case for why development, in the diverse contexts within which the authors are writing, needs to change and what this change might encompass leading to more equitable, creative, and nourishing human/more-than-human futures (see McGregor and Alam in this volume). Reflecting authors’ geographical location in the Asia-Pacific region, the chapters focus on specific examples of development futures from settler-colonial-Indigenous Australia, South Pacific island countries, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines