Decolonising Museums and Exhibitions on the Indigenous Ainu in Japan

Japanese sociologist Mariko Murata was at the IEA to talk about the practice of decolonizing Japanese museums, taking as a reference the effort undertaken by the Ainu Upopoy Museum and National Park, inaugurated in 2020, the first of a national nature dedicated to the ethnic group, and the controversies raised by the procedures adopted by the museum. First occupants of northern Japan, the Ainus were colonized and marginalized by the Japanese for centuries, even being exhibited and subjected to otherness in exhibitions and museum displays, according to Murata. In parallel to this, she says, the Ainu ethnic movement created some collections and instituted guides/hosts to organize ethnic tourism in their villages. Ilana Goldstein (Unifesp) acted as the mediator, while Michiko Okano (Unifesp), Sandra Mara Salles (Afro Brazil Museum), Susilene Elias de Melo (Worikg Museum), and Suzenalson da Silva Santos (Museum Kanindé) participated as debaters.