Abstract
Ainupuri investigates and reframes the histories behind ethnographic museum collections in Europe, as seen from an indigenous perspective. Ainu artist and scholar Kanako Uzawa researched the collections and reconstructed the counter-narratives that Ainu objects in the museums embody, in the form of narration, poetry, song, dance, and performance; these personal and collective histories are mediated by Laura Liverani’s visual storytelling, in a constant dialogue between the two artists.
Laura Liverani
Based between Milan and Tokyo, documentary photographer and filmmaker Laura Liverani works mainly on socio-anthropological issues focusing on community and identity. Her work is featured in magazines, books, exhibitions and festivals worldwide. Publications and clients include Benetton, The Whitechapel Gallery, Iperborea, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Marie Claire, among others. She held solo shows at the Tokyo G/P Gallery, the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo, the Japan Foundation in Sydney, and participated at festivals such as the Singapore International Photo Festival and Yebisu International Art Festival. Her work was also exhibited in national museums internationally, such as the Rautenstrauch- Jost Museum in Cologne and the Tokyo Photographic Arts Museum in Tokyo. Her latest work focused on documentary projects for institutions such as the University of Milano – Bicocca, the Polytechnic of Milan, and the University of Tokyo. As a filmmaker, she co-directed with Nel Sora the documentary film Ainu Neno An Ainu.
Laura Liverani
Documentary photographer and filmmaker.
Kanako Uzawa
Dr. Kanako Uzawa is an Ainu scholar, artist, and rights advocate. She is the founder of AinuToday, a global online platform that delivers living Ainu culture and people. She is an Assistant Professor for the Global Station for Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity at Hokkaido University in Japan. Her most recent work engages with Ainu art exhibitions, as a guest curator in collaboration with the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the United States, as an associated researcher at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo in Norway. She is also an editorial board member of AlterNative: an International Journal of Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand, Aotearoa. During her youth, she encountered negative representations and discrimination towards the Ainu and discovered a stark contrast between the general public view and her people. She began to wonder what does it mean to be Ainu in the twenty-first century? This gave her motivation to explore a way to express the contemporary livelihood of the Ainu. She obtained her master in Indigenous Studies and doctorate degree in Community Planning and Cultural Understanding from the UiT Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø in 2020. She’s held an internship in the Project to Promote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (PRO 169) at the International Labour Organisation, Geneva Switzerland. She contributes to collaborative research and Ainu performing art on the multifaceted articulations of Indigenous knowledge through museums and theaters as artist.
Kanako Uzawa
Hokkaido University.
