Representation - Why It Matters

“They look like Ainu people,” my grandma had commented as I showed her Princess Mononoke. I had never heard of the Ainu people before. I asked her who the Ainu are, and she said, “they’re like Japanese Indians,” meaning Native Americans. “Mountain people.”

After we finished the movie I immediately went to Google to look up the Ainu. My grandma was right, on some level. The pictures I saw of their garments, their houses, their salmon culture, their faces… it all reminded me so much of the tribal culture I grew up around in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

I told my mom what my grandma had said about the Ainu, and my mom said, “oh yeah. Grandma is Ainu.” Whaaaaaaaat? Apparently at one point my grandma had gone back to Hokkaido to visit family, and she brought back all of these unusual souvenirs. Wood carved bears and wood carved bearded people, a mirror with a wood carved woman’s face, and other little things that had always been a part of our household. The little knickknacks that are never questioned, but are some how just kind of always there. I didn’t know that they had come from Japan, and I certainly didn’t know they were Ainu souvenirs.

Of course, my mom didn’t have the internet at her disposal in the 70s, and at the time misunderstood what it meant to be Ainu. She assumed that Ainu was a general term for people from Hokkaido, as opposed to a specific ethnic group. My grandma denied being Ainu, having grown up Wajin, but my grandpa seemed to suspect otherwise. “Sayuri, I don’t know why you deny your heratige. Of course you’re Ainu, look at your big mountain feet!” my grandpa would tease.

The more I read about the Ainu and their history, and the more I looked into my own family history, the more questions that had always nagged at my family seemed to be answered. The question of why we were always so different.

This whole journey started with a movie. Prince Ashitaka is Emishi, and there’s a lot of complicated history about the relation between Ainu and Emishi, but the point is would I have ever learned learned anything about my family background if this culture had never shown up on screen?

People who see themselves and their culture represented all the time take for granted what that can mean. For some people, it’s literally life changing.

Reblog if you're bisexual, or if you support bisexuals, or if you want Queen Elizabeth II to outlive Donald Trump

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tiffanymary2018

4 years ago

If you want to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg, vote.

Vote to protect the laws she championed and the human rights she fought for.

Vote because democracy and equality matter.

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tiffanymary2018

4 years ago

Your daily reminder that Black Lives Still Fucking Matter. Casey Christian Goodson Jr. was mudered by police on December 4th and no one is talking about it. He was shot three times in the back entering his own home. The police are not going to get any better under Joe Biden, in fact, they will continue to get worse because there will be less media scrutiny. There is little to no media coverage of this story because of that very reason. We have to keep these stories in the public eye and continue to fight to defund the police just as hard in 2021.

Here’s a link to the full story from one of the few media sources reporting it.

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tiffanymary2018

4 years ago

END SARS

END POLICE BRUTALITY IN NIGERIA

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tiffanymary2018

6 years ago

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Frank (information and advice on drugs): 0800776600

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Rape Crisis Scotland: 08088 01 03 02 every day, 6pm to midnight

India Self Harm Hotline: 00 08001006614

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Kids Help Phone (Canada): 1-800-668-6868

FREE 24/7 suicide hotlines:

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(Singapore: 1-800-221-4444)

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(Source)

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tiffanymary2018

6 years ago

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Representation - Why It Matters

Representation - Why It Matters