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Let’s Face the Facts: Japanese Indigenous Groups

Okinawans:

-Second largest minority group with a population of 1.3 million in Japan (Yamashiro, 2013)

-Okinawan culture has been deemed merely as a prefectural difference (as for any prefecture in Japan), which ignores their indigenous differences in language, food, and culture, and blatantly covers up their historical status as a distinct ethnic group and independent nation (Yamashiro, 2013)

-Okinawa has been the poorest prefecture in Japan since its integration into Japan in 1879 (Yamashiro, 2013)

-The only part of Japan to experience land battles in World War 2 (Yamashiro, 2013)

-Forced to hold a disproportionate amount of US military forces stationed in Japan (Yamashiro, 2013)

-World War 2 and particularly the Battle of Okinawa, which claimed more than 100,000 Okinawan civilian lives, showed how ready Japan was to sacrifice Okinawa to protect the “mainland” (Howell, 1996)

-Japan has attempted to ‘buy off’ the Okinawan people with deceptive economic development, while using Japanese public symbols (i.e. schools displaying the Japanese national flag) in order to establish Okinawans’ “Japaneseness” (Howell 1996)

-Okinawan music, dance, and crafts have been tamed and exoticized so that they are simply prefectural variants of a main Japanese culture and ethnicity (Howell, 1996)

Ainu:

-Most Japanese perceive them to be racially different (Yamashiro, 2013)

-Historically, Ainu were ethnically and phenotypically different, seen as hairier and taller (Yamashiro, 2013)

-Standard of living and average level of education are lower than the Japanese population (Howell, 1996)

-Media coverage of Ainu issues avoids direct discussion of discrimination within Japan and instead celebrates Ainu culture as a regional difference (Howell, 1996)

Burakumin:

-Described as a caste rather than an ethnically distinct group, but are treated like a different race on the notion of impurity (Yamashiro, 2013)

-The largest minority group in Japan -- 1.5-3 million Burakumin (Yamashiro, 2013)

-The caste was constructed in the Tokugawa Era (1603-1867) by condemning all who were considered “unclean” based their occupations that involve killing (I.e. butchers) (Yamashiro, 2013)

-They were highly discriminated against and lived in segregated communities because of it (Shimahara, 1984)

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Yutang Kabilin (Land of Heritage)

This video demonstrates the experiences of indigenous peoples in Mindanao, experiencing displacement and violence due to militia involvement with mining companies. These people hurt for their land and family and are being killed simply for existing in the land. As stated in the video, they don’t want anything but respect.

- Sabrina L.

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How To End the Oppression of Indigenous People

Attend cultural events

Learn their language

Give them access to education

Help them to know their rights

Fight the government

Listen to them (LISTEN only, don’t talk over their experiences)

Respect a culture’s differences

Bring light to the group’s issues (I.e. economic disparities, oppression) because the general public may not be aware of them

Find a community that shares your struggles

Attend protests that give voice to their rights

Anti-oppressive education (from point of view of the “other”)

Formal Reparations (I.e. Clinton’s Apology Resolution to Native Hawaiians)

Respect their land

Make a difference by voting to protect their rights

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Understanding Indigenous People in the Philippines

When I was little, my family and I took a trip to the northern part of the Philippines where the temperature was a lot cooler. We went to Baguio City, which was a popular tourist destination. That trip was the first time I saw indigenous people. I remember seeing this group of people who looked different because they wore red cloths and some sort of headpiece. As naive 6-year old, I didn’t know who these people were. They seemed like a tourist attraction because many visitors and foreigners took photos with them. Little did I know that this group of people were the Igorot people, and they have inhabited the mountainous regions of the Cordillera Administrative Region in Northern Philippines.

For this project, I interviewed my mother because I figured she would have more knowledge on the Mangyan people, which live on the island of Oriental Mindoro where she grew up in. When I asked her if I could interview her about that specific group, she told me that she knew a lot about indigenous people because she worked at a government agency that served to help them. I had no idea that my mom worked for the NCIP, otherwise known as the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, for 14 years. She worked as both a statistician and accountant for that organization.

When asked to speak about her experience working with indigenous groups, she told me that she became aware of their different cultures and traditions. She became exposed to different languages, traditions and foods, and came to appreciate their unique cultures. While working at the agency, she learned what these people were going through and noticed that a common problem that indigenous groups faced was the threat to their ancestral lands. She spoke of how their lands were their livelihood and how they kept themselves self-sufficient. A current issue was that they did not carry proper documentation to prove that they had land ownership, even though they have long inherited their lands from their ancestors (Schippers, 2010). Because these people did not have their land ownership in writing, they were not considered as having rights to their own lands. This reminded me of an aspect of White Supremacist Culture, which is worship of the written word (Okun). It fails to consider that indigenous peoples rely on oral tradition and that they have their own writing and speaking system. Another issue that indigenous people face is being taken advantage due to their illiteracy, especially in politics. My mom described to me how they are being used for cheating during elections by having them copy the names of candidates whose platforms they are unaware of.

I asked my mother about some ways that indigenous peoples could combat oppression in the Philippines. She brought up the power of education to preserve culture. She suggests that some people from each tribe should become scholars and have access to education and be well-versed in the issues affecting them, and to bring back that knowledge to their respective tribes. These scholars could then become lawyers who can fight for their rights and to educate their own peoples. Another solution she proposed was for the Philippine government to give indigenous people funding to provide them with materials for weaving, which is a source of income for them. My mother told me how indigenous people harvest raw materials on their own and weave using their own bare hands to create beautiful elaborate textiles, which are also used as their clothing. Lastly, my mother told me that one simple way to help end oppression of indigenous people is to listen to them. Although a language barrier may exist, Filipinos should make the effort to communicate with indigenous people in order to listen to their needs. Just like in the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, communication is the one thing that could have solved all the problems between Lia’s parents and the doctors. (Fadiman, 1997).

- Elaika C.

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Moro people, Zamboanga

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Women from the Yakan tribe, preparing  for a wedding. The tanyak is a face painting technique unique to Yakan tribal culture and is only worn during wedding ceremonies.

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Tu Pug Imatuy (”The Right to Kill”) is based on the real-life tragedy of the displacement and killings of Lumad peoples in southern Philippines. It has won six awards from Sinag Maynila: Best Film

Best Director (Arbi Barbarona)

 Best Actress (Malona Sulatan)

Best Screenplay

Best Cinematography

 Best Music.

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This personal account details the feeling of being forgotten or erased. Native culture is lost through colonization and violence. In a culture where identity and spirituality are highly valued, these things are taken away from them. They are unrecognized by the new people who inhabit their land and country and are pushed out of the world.

In my hometown, children are raised into the education of forget. Forget everything, forget your own, forget your land and tongue. Speak only perfect English, bending your tongue backwards for words so alien, configure speech flawless and on point, speak the grammar of obedience, and live through the tortures of your grandmother’s land caved-in into mines and the only words that escape the roof of your mouth are not of your own. Words that cannot even remember. Cannot search the folds of rice paddies, dissect your history woven into your family’s fabrics, or even search the ways to say that you are lost in this land forgotten by tongue and spirit. In this land of untranslatable worries, precious pines have grown into concrete and commerce. Old stone pillars of the old market are now painted over white. Whitewashed to be unrecognizable. Still, you know those cheap table runners are woven from the tapestry of your own kin. Patterns once used to dress the skin of the worthy. You can never paint over worth and history. Tourists come up for a respite from the heat and as they purge the city of photos, they never knew that kaigorotan has already left this place a long time ago. What remains is the searing fire on old folks’ tongues as tourists instragram and place hashtags on them. Only they chose to swallow this fire for a few pesos. To get by in this land of forget. I read stories of Bina-ay singing her name, touching her family’s beads, orchestrating only at night a name she forgot over a baptism she doesn’t have a name for. I remember Chainus paraded for beauty and the facade of her fame hides our own carnival. The tragedy of the St. Louis exposition runs in my blood and although I don’t see the cages anymore, I still am an undefinable species, lost in the identity of exotic. And still they go up and visit this land claiming old relics, bul-ols that once guarded our granaries now guard their backyards and verandas, or placed next to their dogs. Still they come up, enduring tattoos of warriors long gone opening their skin up for their own vanity, inscribing on their alien skin something once branded only for those deemed strong enough and not to those who can afford or have strong social media presence. I have no land to call my own, no name I can sing of, no history I can weave. In this land of changing ethnography and wounded geography, our blood leaks through great dams and our voices swallowed and silenced in the pit of the darkest mines. What you will never find in the map of this place are hidden tactics and traps that held all the ‘ili’ into a perfect quiet. Bombs and killings don’t scream in the pictures you have of my hometown. There are no “perfect destinations” only hamletted villages, only stolen lands, only murder. Only a few know the story of how we continue to claim this land through our own blood. Through bodongs that tied all our struggles together. Through the blood of Macli-ing Dulag, Markus Bangit, Daniel Ngayaan, Simon Naogsan Jr., Pedro Dungoc, Alice Claver, Artus Talastas, Arnold Jaramillo, and many more whose stories go unnoticed in the din of facebook newsfeed, travel promos, instagram bastardization, and downright ignorance. These are stories I will never forget. The tapestry of our continuing history woven by people who follow in their steps. And in this land of war, my miseducated tongue and crippled identity only speak and seek the language of change that grows in the mountains of my hometown, whispering new fires, new marches, a new home ushered by new warriors. And I pray to Kabunyan, guide our heroes home.

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Before you say you made a Filipino character or headcanon a character as Filipino

Please ask yourself what kind of Filipino exactly.

There are at least 175 ethnolinguistic groups (or ethnolinguistic nations, if you prefer the term) in the Philippines — quite an impressive number for such a small archipelago, yes? — with their own distinct languages, cultures and traditions, yet I keep seeing the same vaguely Catholic, Filipino-speaking flavorlessly pan-Filipino characters running around. Why?

Filipino is more of a national allegiance than an ethnic identity. Filipinoness is not a monolith. There is no such thing as just a Filipino. Filipinos are regionalistic and intensely clannish, and might even be antagonistic towards each other. For example: Tagalogs and Cebuanos are going to be different from each other and they will gladly tell you so, and these are both lowland-coastal Catholic ethnic groups.

To put things into perspective:

As was previously said, there are over 175 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines, only twelve of which number over one million members. Namely and in order from most to least populous: Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Central Bicolano, Waray, Kapampangan, Albay Bicolano, Pangasinense, Maranao, Maguindanao and Tausug. The first nine are predominantly Catholic and the last three are predominantly Muslim. Each group speaks a different language and adheres to its own set of traditions.

The majority of Filipinos are from lowland-coastal Catholic (or some other Christian denomination) ethnic groups that have been subject to Spanish colonization, but there is also a sizeable and growing Muslim minority that had never been under Spanish control with cultures quite distinct from their Catholic brethren; might I add that the arrival of Islam predated the arrival of Catholicism in the Philippines? There are also the indigenous peoples that comprise over 100 ethnic groups but only an estimated 3% of the population. The term is a misnomer — the vast majority of Filipinos are indigenous — and what they mean to say is non-Hispanicized, non-Christianized, non-Islamicized, mostly upland/highland or hinterland-dwelling ethnic groups. There are exceptions, though, and some groups that are otherwise classified as indigenous peoples have largely converted to Christianity (i.e. Ibanag) or Islam (i.e. Sama-Bajau). The lines can be arbitrary. There can be any number of mixtures and overlaps between these three major groups.

Then, there are immigrant and mixed populations, such as the Spanish mestizos (who, contrary to popular belief, are a small minority of the population), Filipinos of American descent, Chinese-Filipinos, Japanese-Filipinos, Indian-Filipinos, Koreans and Indonesians. Of course, they will have their own culture and traditions. Some of these groups have been here for centuries and, as such, have adopted a syncretized culture that combines the foreign culture with Philippine culture, leading to even more diversity.

The Chinese-Filipino community alone is already very diverse in itself. It is very old, with contact between the people of what would become China and the Philippines being established since the 9th Century BCE and immigration taking place as early as then. Roughly 2% of the population of the Philippines is Chinese-Filipino and up to 27% is of Chinese descent. Within this group, you can have different combinations of place of origin, ethnicity and social status in China, wave of immigration, method of and reason for immigrating to the Philippines, number of generations from the mainland, and where they settled in the Philippines and level of insularity vs. integration, and each configuration is going to be different, wildly or mildly, from the others. Some are going to be very similar to the surrounding community while some would be practicing and preserving traditions which are long gone and forgotten even in its native China.

tl;dr: The Philippines is ridiculously diverse for such a small collection of rocks by the Pacific. Disabuse yourself of the notion that you can simply say a character is Filipino and be done with it. Choose one and research.

The same applies to any ethnic group or race which you may wish to write or headcanon.

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Who and what is considered Filipino?

Is it the hybrids of Chinese, Euro, Western Asian faces in popular media? The mestizos/the mixed? Is it the colonized traditions of Maria Clara etiquette and Belo skincare? Filipinos known to the world have little to no native ties to the true Filipino tribes who inhabited the land before colonization, before the creation of what we think as Filipinos. The Philippines has a long history of colonization from Spain, America, European and Chinese immigrants and influences. So much that modern Filipino culture upholds eurocentric standards and preferences for light skin and americanization. Maria Clara stems from European colonization of etiquette and classism, favoring higher class culture and rich frills. Popular skincare service line Belo is instantaneously famous in the Philippines for transforming Filipinos into fair skinned, eurocentrically “beautiful” faces through skin lightening, surgery, and more. In a land that has adopted so many other cultural traditions, we’ve lost our own native traditions of indigenous Filipino tribes.

- Sabrina L.

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The Rice Terraces of Banaue are a world heritage site in the Philippines. The Igorots created these famous rice terraces of Banaue that we hold so highly for ecotourism and claim as “our own” people who hand carved them and yet what do we do for those people?

Where do the funds of this ecotourism go? Do we give any of it back to the people who hand carved this creation hundreds of years ago?

- Sabrina L.

Banaue Rice Terraces in Philippines

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I am an IGOROT... who are you?

My ancestors were among the first that dominated the lands of Baguio and Benguet. My great grandfather was among the early settlers of Bagiw which is now called Baguio City. My great grandfather was a simple small man who stood only less than five feet. But what he did for his family was great. He maybe small but he had the biggest heart of all. He worked hard for his family by farming. His farm was from the heart of Bagiw (where the Maharlika now stands) extending up to Sepic road all the way down to BPI Guisad. When the American regime started, the land that my great grandfather tilled and cared for transformed into being the Summer Capital of the Philippines. The Americans evicted him from his grazing land for the reason that they cannot stand the smell of his animal’s manure. But my grandfather never said a word and so instead he moved towards Naguilian road (Bermuda, San Luis and Peday Asin Road) where he again tilled the land until they were developed.

My great grandfather as I’ve said had a big heart. He distributed his lands to his sons. Bermuda was given to Saguid, BPI Guisad was given to Zarate, and Peday Asid Road was given to Quinio. His other son, Nabus, whom he let his childless close relative adopt, inherited parts of La Trinidad.

The great SEPIC is my great grandfather. The Sepic Road was named in honor of him. But the road was changed to ROMAN AYSON Road. They changed it in honor of Roman Ayson, a city councilor, who resides within that area. Gone now is my great grandfather’s name. My great grandfather who was forced to move with his livestocks by the Americans was erased in the History of Baguio City. I am appealing for just one thing. To have that road be named again after my old man. It’s the only credit he will get from what he did for the city.

I am an IGOROT. My roots are from that of the great SEPIC. This is my heritage. Baguio and Benguet is my Home. WE OWN THIS LAND! WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO FIGHT FOR IT. NOT ONLY FOR THE TREES BUT FOR OUR PEOPLE! 

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“You are 25% Okinawan and 75% Japanese, but just put it all as Japanese”

Little did my mom know, that is exactly what the Japanese had wanted — for all Okinawans to assimilate to mainstream Japanese culture. Prior to this project, I had a very limited understanding of the relationship between the two groups and just assumed that one was a smaller branch of the other. However, my perspective had changed completely once I learned of the decades of oppression that Okinawans had faced from the Japanese. Researching this topic was really meaningful to me because I have family rooted in both groups. Growing up in Hawaii, I took Japanese classes from 6th to 10th grade, yet none of this history was ever discussed. This lack of Japanese history in the education system (in Hawaii) arguably reinforces Okinawan erasure. Especially because there is such a huge Japanese influence in the state, information like this would be very valuable to know. I would highly encourage everyone to look into their cultural history and become more informed about their background. Personally, I would like to incorporate more aspects of Okinawan culture into my life not only as a form of cultural preservation, but also to gain a better understanding and appreciation of it. 

- Tiana Igarashi

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Source: Otani, S. (2009). Positioning American Japanese in the Context of Japanese and Okinawan Nationalism and Ethnicity. Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies, 2, 2-16.

Otani’s article provides a deeper look into the historical context of relations between the Japanese and Okinawans by describing each ethnicity’s respective role in the overarching Japanese culture. Okinawans are generally excluded from mainstream Japan and are not considered to be “true Japanese” since they do not originate or reside on the main islands. Their culture is also repeatedly exploited for profit. 

-Tiana Igarashi

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Kahiko ~

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January 17th 1893: Overthrow of Hawaii

On this day in 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy of Queen Lilioukalani was overthrown with the support of the United States. Throughout the nineteenth century, a number of American sugar planters moved to the Hawaiian kingdom. Determined to secure more power for themselves, these planters pushed through measures to drastically reduce the monarch’s role and limit non-whites’ voting power. Queen Liliuokalani, who ascended to the throne in 1891, sought to reassert Hawaiian sovereignty. Concerned about their financial prospects, a group of American businessmen planned to depose the monarch. On January 17th 1893, the conspirators gathered their supporters in Honolulu to launch a coup d’etat, which had the tacit support of the U.S. government. The next day, conspirators captured the government building and declared a provisional government, which was immediately recognised by the U.S. Queen Liliuokalani stepped aside in the hope of avoiding bloodshed, and American troops raided Honolulu. The new President, Grover Cleveland, opposed annexation and supported reinstating the monarchy, but the provisional government refused. Hawaii was eventually annexed by the U.S. in 1898, as the strategic base at Pearl Harbor proved useful during the Spanish-American War. Hawaii was officially designated the fiftieth U.S. state in 1959, despite enduring concerns about the legality of the overthrow. Many indigenous Hawaiians continue to object to American rule and call for a return to sovereignty; the U.S. government officially apologised for the overthrow of Hawaii in 1993.

“The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.” - U.S. minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens, in a letter to the Secretary of State after the coup

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Why do the Ainu people tattoo their face?

The indigenous Japanese group of Ainu people are easily recognizable due to their distinct facial tattoos. These tattoos can only be seen among the Ainu women. As a whole, their culture sees tattoos as part of their religion, and are considered to be a prerequisite to marriage and the afterlife. They are also seen as a way to keep evil spirits out of their body and to avoid sickness. When children are very young, they start off with a small dot on their upper lips. As they grow older, this dot is expanded to the area around their lips.

However, the Ainu have not had an easy life. As early as 1799, Japanese authorities had prohibited these tattoos, as they contradicted mainstream Japanese culture. This has been one of many attempts of the Japanese to force their indigenous populations to assimilate. Many Ainu who still chose to have facial tattoos actively evaded Japanese authorities for years, as tattooing is a very important part of their religion.

Today, there are about 20,000 Ainu people residing in various parts of Japan.

Source     Photo

-Tiana Igarashi