This project explores the hidden legacies of transnational Indigeneity and Indigenous diplomacy by examining two pivotal trips during which a group of Ainu delegates from Japan and a group of First Nations delegates from British Columbia traveled to China in the mid-1970s. They were impressed with what they saw in terms of education and Indigenous language promotion, and began to envision new kinds of activism in their home countries. Our Indigenous-majority team of Investigators, Collaborators and students will work collectively to carry out four key objectives: 1) engage with scholarship in Transnational Studies to provide alternatives to state-centered accounts, 2) show how Indigenous transnational diplomacy expands Indigenous Studies beyond domestic studies and offer non-oppositional frameworks that expands understanding of Indigenous agency; and 3) contribute to Asian Studies by analyzing transpacific connections, not just comparisons.
We have contacted most delegates, and will carry out a series of interviews, explorations of the archival record, and research into the social context to understand what they experienced while in China, and how this motivated their activism. Theoretically, our project foregrounds these actions as creative world-making activities in China and in many later travels. Through extended conversations, we follow their life trajectories to explore together how their understanding of the pursuit of Indigenous justice changed over the subsequent decades.
This project offers widespread potential academic contributions and community benefits. In academic terms, it contributes to Transnational Studies by foregrounding Indigenous-led actions in creating transnational encounters. It builds on Indigenous Studies by stressing how transnational Indigeneity and Indigenous diplomacy helps move beyond state-centered, oppositional frameworks. Indigenous scholars have pointed to problems with an oppositional frame yet there are few viable alternatives. “World- making” is an alternative frame for our writings, providing modes of Indigenous agency that move beyond the dichotomous framework of either resistance or accommodation.
In community terms, we contribute novel accounts for Indigenous and non-Indigenous publics in Japan, China, Canada and elsewhere, as there is little existing recognition that Indigenous peoples have actively traveled and explored the world. Thus the project challenges damaging and persistent stereotypes of Indigenous people as relatively passive subjects of colonialism and global history-making. In terms of knowledge transmission, the project is novel in several ways. First, we will produce a documentary film that highlights the oral history of Canada’s most influential Indigenous leaders who visited China; we will hold a 3-day symposium, reuniting delegates, either in person or online. Second, we will design an online class to explore the global legacy of the Red Power Movement, and how Indigenous groups from Canada played a crucial role in this legacy. Third, we will build an interactive digital platform that uses compelling graphics, timelines and maps to show our research in a publicly accessible way. We are designing this as a collaborative digital space so that others can join our efforts, contributing more knowledge about transnational Indigenous diplomacy and expanding understandings of how Indigenous groups have helped shape the contours of the modern world.
