The Road of Reconciliation: Recovery of Rights, Indigenous Participation, and Responsibility of Academia

2:30pm to 4pm | 20 June 2025
Hedley Bull 1, Hedley Bull Building, 130 Garran Road, Acton, ANU

The Ainu people are Indigenous people of Japan, but their social status was not officially recognised until 2008. The Ainu are an overwhelming minority in current Japanese society and have been deprived of their land, language and cultural traditions through a long history of colonial assimilation policies, and their rights to pass on their traditions have been restricted.

Like other Indigenous peoples, the Ainu were subjected to racial anthropology in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the ancestral remains of Ainu were collected from the graveyard in Hokkaido Island, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin Island. Some of these remains were exchanged with the other Indigenous ancestral remains from Australia, Hawaii, North and South America, and Europe as research specimens.

The movement for the repatriation of ancestral remains of the Ainu began in the 1980s. However, only a small portion of ancestral remains have been reburied, and most remain in the National Resting Space in Shiraoi town. Some ancestral remains Ainu are also stored in museums and research facilities overseas, and their details and total number are unknown. The repatriation of ancestral remains is a step toward healing past injustices and a gateway to future reconciliation. In this lecture, Japanese archaeologist Professor Hirofumi KATO will consider the importance of the Ainu people's participation in all processes of indigenous repatriation, not limited to human remains, as an essential perspective for the reconciliation process with the Ainu people in Japan. Furthermore, this talk will prompt the audience to consider the role and responsibilities that the research community should assume in advancing reconciliation with the Ainu people and addressing past injustices.

Light refreshments will be provided. For catering purposes, please RSVP by 1 June if you intend on attending in person. 

About the Speaker

Professor Hirofumi KATO is a Japanese archaeologist. His research interest is Indigenous archaeology and indigenous cultural heritage. He was born on 28 July 1966 in Hokkaido Island. His current position is Professor of Indigenous archaeology at the Centre for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, as well as the Director of Global Station for Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity, Hokkaido University. His external appointment positions in Japan are a research collaborator of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto and a program officer, the research centre for Science Systems, JSPS. He is additionally Affiliate Professor of Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Research Fellow of Oxford Centre of Asian Archaeology, Art and Culture, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, and Honorary Professor, Irkutsk State University.