Introduction

Abstract

This book, and the study on which it is based, were inspired by the transformation described in the Prologue. It is not specifically about the Ainu people—there are Ainu working on their own representation now, and there are growing sources of information in various media. But the Ainu are not the only contemporary people who were almost obliterated from the consciousness of the wider public, and I was further guided into devising the project by the words of an Ainu woman who sought to account for the growth in her people’s confidence. She explained, with an expression of some content,

We discovered that there are other peoples in the world who had been largely erased from their country’s memories. We are in touch with each other now, and we are all learning to feel pride in our ancestry again.

For the longest time I didn’t know what to say when someone asked if I was “really Indian.”

Deborah Doxtator, “The Home of Indian Culture and Other Stories“