Ainu Activism

**Livestreamed May 2021** Ryoko Tahara, President of the Ainu Women’s Association, shares how she became an activist for Ainu women and tells of her travels to the Kiril and Aleutian Islands to honor Ainu ancestors. Ryoko Tahara was born in a relatively affluent Ainu family in Mukawa Hokkaido, which enabled her to pursue education to support her surrounding community. In her thirties, Tahara was employed as a social worker for Ainu women by the municipality of Sapporo and also had the opportunity to serve the Ainu community at the executive office of the Sapporo Ainu Association. With two-decades of experience as a social worker and office worker, Tahara became altered to the social and economic problems which were directly impacting Ainu women. Tahara learned about the kinds of discrimination, abuse and exploitation that her Ainu sisters regularly endure by Japanese society. During this time, Tahara learned to navigate the many difficulties that minoritized people in Japan face due to Japanese authorities. In 2003, Tahara participated in the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in New York. This was the first time in a history that an Ainu would bring attention to the discrimination against Ainu women on an international stage. In 2017, Tahara founded the Ainu Women’s Association (Menoko Mosmos in the Ainu language meaning “Wake Up Ainu women!”). Since its foundation, the Ainu Women’s Association has been collaborating with two international organizations: Slow Food Nippon/International for the maintenance and development of Ainu traditional food and Amareya Theatre in Gdansk Poland for the provision of performances to decolonize their minds and bodies. Thus Tahara has been devoted to tackling Ainu women’s issues, which were hidden prior to her campaign, in cooperation with other minority women in Japan for decades.