CHARANKE AND HIP HOP: THE ARGUMENT FOR RE-STORYING THE EDUCATION OF AINU IN DIASPORA THROUGH PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY

Abstract

The Ainu are recognized as an Indigenous people across the areas of Japan known as Hokkaido and Honshu, as well as the areas of Russia called Sakhalin, Kurile, and Kamchatka. In this research, the term Ainu in Diaspora refers to the distinct cultural identity of Ainu transnationals who share Ainu heritage and cultural identity, despite being generationally removed from their ancestral homeland. The distinct cultural identity of Ainu in Diaspora is often compromised within Japanese transnational communities due to a long history of Ainu being dehumanized and forcibly assimilated into the Japanese population through formalized systems of schooling. The purpose of this study is to tell the stories and lived experiences of five Ainu in Diaspora with autobiographic accounts as told by a researcher who is also a member of this community. In this study, the researcher uses a distinctly Ainu in Diaspora theoretical lens to describe the phenomena of knowledge-sharing between Indigenous communities who enter into mutually beneficial relationships to sustain cultural and spiritual identity. Cultural identity is often knowledge transferred outside of formal educational settings by the Knowledge Keepers through storytelling, art, and music. In keeping true to transformative research approaches, the Moshiri model normalizes the shamanic nature of the Ainu in Diaspora worldview as a methodological frame through the process of narrative inquiry. Through art-integrated charanke (Ainu process of argument) and Hip Hop, a multimedia performance ethnography emerged to display the complex ways in which the Ainu in Diaspora Knowledge Keepers perpetuate the cultural identity of this community, both in and out of formal educational spaces. Telling these stories is important because of the lack of academic literature on this population. In addition, the stories shared by the Ainu in Diaspora speak to the erasure of marginalized people within formal institutions of education who desire visibility.