Managing cultural representation: Ainu and First Nations museums in Japan and Canada

This dissertation discusses why culture is important, what the meaning of culture for Native people is, and how the museum is important for Native cultural promotion, through the case studies of two community-based Native museums, the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum in Japan and the Woodland Cultural Centre in Canada. Postcolonial scholars have clarified how Native culture was represented as "savage" and "uncivilized" in World Expositions and museums a century ago, and how the museum has been developed as a colonial institution. Some postcolonial geographers have also discussed how Native culture has been constructed as "Other," and how colonialism is ongoing in the twenty-first century. Postcolonial geographers have not paid much attention, however, to how museums are trying to incorporate Native voices into their exhibitions through the development of collaborative projects, and how Native people themselves are engaging in such projects. I argue that the development of collaborative projects represents a shift of focus from result to process, and a result of this shift is that the museum can take a significant role for Native cultural promotion. Native-run museums are helping Native people to form an identity, and giving them a confidence to live as Natives.;In Nibutani, the inheritance of Ainu culture had reached a critical condition until two projects recently developed by the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum brought a new direction for the inheritance and promotion of Ainu culture. These projects largely focussed on contemporary aspects, which gradually increased the interest of local residents in Ainu culture, and successively got them to engage in cultural activities and to recognize the invaluable legacy of the Ainu culture of Nibutani. The projects firmly established a base for the inheritance and promotion of Ainu culture for the future.;The Woodland Cultural Centre has claimed the creation, diversity, and change of Native culture, and positively interpreted culture to give Native people pride and dignity. The Centre has also taken a significant role off the reserve by getting non-Native people to first accept and give them "accurate" information on Native people. The Centre has been therefore an advocacy space, which protects Native people from colonial attitudes such as the misinterpretation and appropriation of Native culture. Native people have used the museum, which is part of the Western worldview but foreign for the Native, in their own way.;The case studies of these two museums show that the museum has given a sense of the value of museums to Native people, and taught how culture is important and that cultural activities are emotional fulfillment and intellectual enjoyment. These two cases also show that the museum is a form of cultural capital, a contact zone, and safe middle ground for Native people. The former colonial institution of the museum is now beyond colonialism. There is a postcolonial space.