Our Land Was a Forest: Reflecting on the Ainu Histories of Dispossession and the Connection to Pinaymootang First Nation

The memoir titled Our Land was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir by Kayano Shigeru tells the story of the Ainu people, who faced struggles after the Japanese took over their land. The struggles the Ainu faced included dispossession and the assimilation of their culture because of the forced practices of the Japanese after the invasion. This memoir is particularly important because it is written by an Ainu man who chose to devote his time to preserving his Ainu culture, a culture that Kayano realized was on the verge of being forgotten had he not intervened (99). In this essay, I will explore the struggles and experiences of the Ainu people that inspired Kayano to write his memoir. I will also highlight how these experiences resonate with those of my own community. My goal is not to compare the two, but to illustrate the patterns of colonialism that impact Indigenous communities worldwide. Despite the challenges posed by colonialism, individuals still strive to preserve their culture.

The story begins with the author, Kayano, recalling Nibutani before the arrival of mainland Japanese, referred to in the book as the “Shamo,” a somewhat derogatory term for them in the Ainu language with a Japanized pronunciation (8). The text mentions that some Ainu people can trace their ancestry back to the Saru River region. They take pride in being from the land where their god, Okikurmi Kamuy, was born. This god taught the Ainu how to live sustainably off the land. This also meant respecting it because it was what their gods wanted and what was taught among their people. The Ainu practiced woodcutting and hunting, but Kayano notes that the land “was” a forest (8). I am emphasizing the word ‘was’ because, after the Ainu were found by the Mainland Japanese living in the Nibutani area during the Edo period, they experienced a drastic change in their way of life. The Mainland Japanese had forced the Ainu to leave their homelands in the form of a forced evacuation and then took their land for profit.

Growing up in Nibutani during this time of colonialism was hard on the Ainu because they experienced such cruel forced labour. Kayano notes how his grandfather was forced to work as a slave in harsh conditions to the point where he attempted to cut off his own finger in hopes it would get him out of the gruelling labour and allow him to go home (65). However, even that did not help, as the masters just told him to get back to work. Not only were the Ainu forced to work as slaves, but they had to live off small rations, leaving a lot of them to get sick and their children to die of hunger (Kayano 35). Beyond the hard labour, the Ainu people also had their salmon-fishing practices changed by laws imposed on them, such as when they could fish for salmon, with Kayano noting that telling the Ainu not to fish for salmon was like telling them to die, because they had always lived off it (59). All these factors contributed to the Ainu being described in the text as poor yet culturally rich people.

The Ainu people were culturally rich because, even after the Edo period, they continued to raise their children and live by their ancestors’ values. For example, in chapter two, Kayano goes back to his childhood and reflects on how he and a few other Ainu children used to dangle a baby sparrow by its hair at the top of its head, causing it to flap its wings desperately. When the parents discovered what they were doing, Kayano mentions that “It was our turn to be suspended by the hair of our heads and to kick our legs in the air” (14). Despite this rough play with the animals, the Ainu children still held them in respect, and if a bird accidentally died during their play, they knew to offer millet and pray to the gods. They were also taught to make an offering when cutting down trees, to let the gods know that the wood would serve a purpose. These practices stood in contrast to and were ignored by the Mainland Japanese, who chose to disregard the preexisting relationship between the Ainu people and the land and claim it for themselves.

As the Mainland Japanese began taking over the land, they overfished to the point that salmon, which the Ainu once relied on, became illegal to catch because they enacted a law outlawing salmon fishing in certain seasons. Not only that, they began cutting down trees for profit and clearing the once-vast Nibutani forest, ignoring the fact that the Ainu had rites regarding tree cutting and fishing (Kayano 58, 66) and that it should only be done with a purpose in mind and not to take too much. This reminded me of my own people, leading me to reflect on how the Ainu’s experiences echo the Indigenous history of Canada.

In my own Indigenous culture, although we do not offer millet or wine, we offer tobacco whenever we take something from the land, whether it be an animal or a tree. This practice has been passed down for generations because it was how we respected the creator, and it continued after colonization, much like the Ainu’s efforts to respect their gods after the arrival of the Mainland Japanese. Another similarity I noticed is that our culture is often described and studied by outsiders, as Kayano noted about Ainu culture and Japanese scholars.

Before his father’s death, Kayano noticed that only Mainland Japanese scholars came to Nibutani in search of the knowledge and treasures that the Ainu people held. The scholars wanted to understand the Ainu, but their methods were invasive. They would often come to see his father for his extensive knowledge, take photos of the Ainu, and collect their blood for study. Worst of all, the Japanese scholars would leave with Ainu treasures after digging up the sacred tombs, even taking the ancestral bones with them (Kayano 99). This clearly shows readers that, up until this point, the Ainu were treated as a novelty, something to be discovered and claimed by the “Shamo.” Deciding that enough was enough, Kayano vowed to take back the Ainu culture.

Kayano not only began buying, discovering, and making Ainu artifacts himself, but he also began efforts to preserve his language after realizing that it, too, was on the verge of being forgotten. This realization led Kayano to begin teaching his Ainu language to others and to try to revive it. He later expressed gratitude toward his grandmother, mentioning that because “she had been a superb personal tutor,” Kayano is fluent in Ainu (5). He later mentions how “looking back, though, I see that she securely passed down to me the greatest treasures of the Ainu people” (83). I felt deeply moved by this because Kayano realized that every time his grandmother told him stories and spoke to him, she was sharing the teachings of their people, something that happens in my own culture as well.

As Indigenous people of Canada, we should be putting time and effort into learning our histories. We should be listening to our elders and taking in what they have to say because, like the Ainu, they hold our greatest treasures. Although there are Indigenous scholars, there are not enough, and there needs to be more. In the case of the Ainu, their people and culture were slowly disappearing and becoming forgotten until Kayano dedicated himself to revitalizing them. He went so far as to teach himself the lost crafts of his people because no one was left to teach them, creating his own artifacts, opening a preschool, and eventually becoming a teacher of the Ainu language (149, 160). His actions give readers a clear example of how to revitalize their own cultures.

In conclusion, the Ainu people have faced many hardships, yet they still exist today, thanks to the efforts of Kayano Shigeru and the people he worked with to create the memoir Our Land Was a Forest. This memoir sheds light on the patterns of colonialism that have affected Indigenous communities worldwide by showing readers what the Ainu people went through when they dealt with it during the Edo period and so forth. Thanks to this memoir and the efforts of those involved, the Ainu people will not be forgotten any time soon. Not only that, but this memoir also serves as an important lesson for all Indigenous people who have faced the impact of colonialism. It highlights Kayano’s efforts to revitalize his culture in the face of these challenges, conveying the message that Indigenous individuals do not have to passively watch their culture’s treasures, including language and traditions, fade from common knowledge. Instead, they can take inspiration from Kayano and actively work to preserve and revitalize their culture for future generations.