(Re)-discovering Okinawan indigeneity: articulation and activism

Abstract

Okinawa broadly refers to a geographical island chain between Kyūshū (mainland Japan) and Taiwan, which is the southernmost and most recently added administrative region of Japan. Since 1996, people from Okinawa have started articulating their indigenous rights to self-determination under international law. In a small island in the Pacific, pressured by both Japanese and American foreign policies, homegrown Okinawan cultural, economic, and political development efforts have long been trivialized and even ignored outright. The recent wave of globalization helped galvanize a modern Okinawan self-identity in line with the global indigenous movement at large. I argue that the adoption of an indigenous framework to examine Okinawan political articulations and movements would both expand understanding of the place and people and mobilize Okinawans to secure a decolonized future. Using a peoplehood definition of "indigenous" that underpins the balanced and linked foundations of indigenous way of being, this thesis illustrates how Okinawans have politically and culturally demonstrated their indigeneity and how global indigenous movements could possibly help to rethink and discuss "domestic issues" that Okinawans have been struggling to solve.