Converging Activism, Research, and Art for Decolonizing Futures: Final Conference Report
From July 11 to 13, 2025, the final international conference Decolonizing Futures was held on mainland Okinawa. Organized across multiple venues—including Atelier Mekaru Base and Okinawa International University—the event brought together activists, scholars, artists, and allies to explore decolonial strategies across diverse fields such as language and cultural revitalization, museum practices, performances, and legal frameworks. The gathering provided a rich space to reflect on the intersections of cultural resistance, self-determination, and knowledge sovereignty across different Indigenous contexts, with a special focus on the Ainu and Ryūkyūan peoples.
Day 1 – Performances at Mekaru Base
The opening evening took place at Atelier Mekaru Base, featuring powerful performances that grounded the conference in artistic and embodied forms of memory and resistance. These performances took place in a vibrant atmosphere, with a joyful and engaged audience composed of conference attendees and members of the local community. The event was sold out.
The first performance was by Higaza Theatre who presented three Okinawan plays: Mashii Hamee, Kampoo nu kweenukusaa and Ichimushi Eisaa. The performance stood out as a powerful expression of local cultural identity, not only through its themes and aesthetics but also through the use of Uchināguchi during the plays. This made it a unique opportunity to experience theatre as a living manifestation of local heritage, allowing the audience to engage with the region’s history, emotions, and linguistic landscape.
The second part of the evening featured UNA, a collaborative ritual-performance by four women artists from Amareya Theatre and guests. Through visual symbolism, movement and spiritual invocation, the performance reclaimed feminine power and called for ecological and political healing, confronting colonialism, patriarchy, and environmental collapse.
Day 2 – Conference at Okinawa International University
The second day marked the beginning of the conference presentations, introduced by Professor Masahide Ishihara, who offered a warm welcome and contextualized the work ahead. The opening session, titled The Legacy of Scientific Racism, brought together diverse contributions that explored the long-standing impact of scientific racism and colonial legacies on Indigenous peoples, particularly in the Japanese context.
Professors Hiroshi Kikuchi and Harumi Ogawa examined the persistent reluctance of the Japanese government and society to recognize the Ainu as Indigenous peoples, emphasizing the structural denial and historical erasure that continue to undermine their rights. In a related contribution, Professor Hiroshi Maruyama addressed the enduring impact of scientific racism and colonial policy on the Ainu, drawing attention to inadequate research guidelines and the role of settler academic institutions in perpetuating paternalistic approaches. While his focus was on the Ainu, Professor Maruyama emphasized that these dynamics equally affect the Ryūkyūan peoples, who remain subjected to similar forms of epistemic marginalization and institutionalized colonialism within the Japanese academic landscape.
Carles Jornet, researcher at CEMiPoS, presented a case study on how ethical research practices can support Indigenous self-determination, focusing on the repatriation of the historic treaty El Acuerdo de Voluntades and human remains to the Rapanui people. His presentation emphasized the enduring colonial dynamics of the Chilean state, which continue to obstruct repatriation processes and thereby limit the exercise of Indigenous sovereignty. Closely aligned with this contribution, Professor Yasukatsu Matsushima analyzed the Lewchewan repatriation movement, framing it as a political act rooted in the right to self-determination and the broader decolonization of Lewchew. His intervention highlighted the intersection of legal, cultural, and political dimensions in ongoing efforts to reclaim ancestral remains. Natalia Deptała addressed the role of legal frameworks in safeguarding cultural identities, exploring both the potential and constraints of state-driven heritage protection mechanisms. Her presentation offered a comparative perspective that underscored the importance of critically assessing the effectiveness of existing laws in diverse national contexts.
Finally, Seira Duncan, also a researcher at CEMiPoS, shared reflections on historical and contemporary exchanges between the Ryūkyūan people and other Indigenous communities, with particular focus on their relationships with Māori. Her talk showcased how trans-Indigenous alliances foster mutual recognition and strengthen efforts toward linguistic and cultural revitalization. Unfortunately, the plenary session led by Rauni Äärelä-Vihriälä, which was to focus on revitalization of the Sámi language was cancelled due to the speaker’s inability to attend the conference. In place of the plenary, participants were invited to experience a curated exhibition featuring the works of artists Tomas Colbengtson, Antonie Frank Grahamsdaughter, Chie Kyan, and Kengi Takara. The exhibition brought together a variety of visual, material, and symbolic expressions, each reflecting distinct yet interconnected Indigenous perspectives. The audience was offered a valuable opportunity to engage with contemporary art as a form of knowledge-making, activism, and healing—echoing the broader themes of the conference on decolonization and cultural revitalization.
In the early afternoon, participants at the conference had the option to attend two different sessions on the topic ‘Language Revitalization, Reclamation and Community Building’. Session A commenced with Daichi Shimabukuro’s presentation exploring the challenges and potentials of the Okinawan language input method engine (IME) and the ways in which it may contribute to Ryūkyūan language revitalization. Following this, Nick Overacker proposed community-controlled Indigenous speech corpora with special reference to the Ainu language, and his talk emphasized data sovereignty and ethical concerns. Misato Matsuda and Gijs van der Lubbe then highlighted the Nature Method in relation to Ruuchuuan language revitalization, accompanied with Misato’s own learning experience as a Ryūkyūan. Aleksandra Jarosz discussed Indigenous values and worldviews expressed in a wide range of Ryūkyūan proverbs which are often based on nature and highlight community and empathy. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion that saw the audience ask a range of questions, as well as the presenters themselves ask each other about potential challenges. For instance: was Shimabukuro considering more than one Ryūkyūan language? what was it like for Matsuda herself to learn a Ruuchuuan language through the Nature Method?
Session B brought together diverse approaches to language revitalization and decolonial education, with a focus on the Ryūkyūan, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Palauan contexts. Yumi Standlee shared personal and community-based narratives in her presentation Stories of Ryūkyūan-Hawaiian Language Heritage, highlighting the intergenerational transmission of language among diasporic communities. Jisuk Park addressed the need to decolonize Japanese language textbooks, critically examining historical narratives that often reproduce nationalistic and colonial assumptions. The presentation proposed the necessity for more inclusive and accurate portrayals of Japan’s linguistic and cultural diversity. Gillian Sawyer introduced a decolonial approach to language resource creation through her work on Palauan language reclamation using ArcGIS StoryMaps. Her project combined digital mapping tools with oral histories and community knowledge, offering an innovative methodology to document, visualize, and share Indigenous linguistic heritage. Finally, Zack Edwards and Dylan John Tamotsu Kamiyama Pilger explored the entanglement of language, capitalism, and colonialism in the Ryukyus, advocating for a deeper engagement with the lived realities of Ryūkyūan communities resisting linguistic and cultural assimilation.
Discussions following the session led to the conclusion that revitalization is not about returning to the past, but rather about moving forward while resisting the constraints of enduring colonialism. It involves keeping alive cultural forms and knowledge systems that have been passed down through generations, a treasure bestowed upon us by our ancestors. This process necessarily requires the exercise of effective sovereignty and self-determination, as these are the political foundations that make it possible for a people to pursue their own goals in terms of language and culture. In this sense, revitalization is inseparable from decolonization.
The second day of the conference concluded with a workshop on the Yaeyaman language picture book project, by Sachiyo Fujita-Round, Madoka Hammine, Akira Toji and Zack Edwards. The session was truly engaging, creating a space where participants could connect not only with the language but also with one another.
A particularly meaningful moment was the presence of Mr. Akira Toji, a speaker of Kumoomuni, one of the Yaeyaman language varieties. His contribution offered attendees an unforgottable opportunity to witness an endangered language in use, while also highlighting the richness, beauty, and complexity of the oral tradition embedded within it. Beyond its linguistic value, the workshop emphasized the cultural depth carried through storytelling and speech in Yaeyaman. This was transmitted to the audience by Mr. Akira Toji, through the old tale of God and the six birds of Kohama Island.
Day 3 – Conference at Okinawa International University
The final day of the conference opened with a session entitled Towards Healing through Art. It featured various presentations, including I-Yun Cheng’s talk on decolonizing museums with Indigenous practices, which studied the use of Indigenous languages in Taiwanese museums. This session also hosted Antonie Grahamsdaughter’s presentation focused on Indigenous women, art and activism using personal narratives and multimedia elements. Finally, Špela Drnovšek Zorko presented a multidisciplinary project concerned with ‘entangled Easts’ in the contexts of ‘Eastern’ Europe and ‘East’ Asia, as well as ‘the decolonial potentialities of such a move’.
The morning coffee break was followed by two sessions in parallel. Session 4, Decolonization from Okinawa, Ryukus, was opened by Sutej Hugu, who presented the poet-activist Elder Bukun’s work in the context of Indigenous language literature in Taiwan. Soroush Hashemloo shared his progress on his master’s thesis pertaining to the 1975 Okinawa Expo and how Japanese colonialism in Ryukyu has developed over time. Alexyss McClellan-Ufugusuku’s presentation examined the Poké Lids campaign in Japan in relation to the promotion of Okinawa's Hawaiian image. Finally, Kazuma Maetakenishi presented an ethnography of Okinawan comedy in relation to minority resistance.
On the other side, session 5 Diaspora, Identities and Decoloniality, counted with various topics of deep relevance to the conference. José Carlos Feliciano Nishikawa’s presentation shared the story of Rosa Kimiko, his Uchinanchu-Andean grandmother, highlighting how language barriers, discrimination, and community resilience shaped the experience of Okinawan descendants in Peru across 118 years of migration history. The following presentation, by Zimbabwean academic and visual activist Skye R Tinevimbo Chirape, reflected on reimagining research in psychology and migration through participatory and visual methodologies. This presentation offered a valuable example of the potential of a decolonial logic of research methodologies, in this case aiming to challenge dominant paradigms and promote healing, justice, and community-led knowledge production beyond academic boundaries. Finally, Micah Mizukami explored the personal experiences of diasporic Uchinānchu at the 2022 Taikai through a community-based oral history approach, highlighting how participants navigated Okinawa’s multilingual setting, questioned the narrative of unity, and offered reflections on language and future directions for reconnecting with their shima.
After lunch, artist Kengi Takara’s talk Resistance - Flower Demonstration highlighted his exhibitions Forest, Earth, Sea, Bases and Postwar as well as his use of raw materials from Okinawa in works such as the Flower Demonstration. Additionally, Okinawa-born artist Chie Kyan demonstrated how she incorporates local materials like red soil into her work, which embodies themes of resistance, as in Takara’s work. This presentation was followed by two workshops. In the first, led by Chie Kyan, participants engaged with the red soil of Yomitan, collected from a former airfield with a painful colonial and military past, to connect with Okinawa’s layered histories of dispossession, resistance, and resilience. For Kyan, drawing with red soil becomes an act of prayer, inviting collective reflection and a shared wish for peace. The second workshop, led by Gabriela Gushiken and Mateus Oliveira, encouraged participants to explore objects and experiences that evoke discomfort or alertness, linking them to broader systems of marginalization and hegemonic power. Using a dynamic card-based method inspired by champuru and gambiarra, attendees collaborated to transform discomfort into creative responses and ideas for social change. Together, these workshops demonstrated how artistic and participatory practices can serve as powerful tools for healing, critical inquiry, and collective imagination.
The final session, Creativity, Literacy and Environment, started with Professor Kamrul Hossein, who explored the evolution of Indigenous rights through human rights law, focusing on Sámi peoples and how treaty monitoring bodies have increasingly acknowledged their cultural identities as foundational to broader rights claims. Katarzyna Pastuszak highlighted artivistic collaborations between Indigenous female artists and Amareya Theatre & Guests, framing performance as a powerful tool to confront ecological crisis, decolonize landscapes, and cultivate resilience through embodied storytelling. Finally, a study on rural Japan by Rachel Herring examined how traditional cultural practices can inform more equitable energy transitions, revealing that while communities support localized, sustainable energy projects, broader awareness and inclusion of cultural heritage remain essential for long-term resilience and justice. Together, these presentations underscored the need for integrative, culturally grounded approaches to justice, healing, and transformation.
The closing words of the conference by Professor Hiroshi Maruyama, director of CEMiPoS, described the seminar as a precious gift and extended his gratitude to all participants for their presence and contributions, acknowledging how each of them helped make the gathering truly special. He gave particular recognition to Professor Madoka Hammine for her unwavering dedication and effort in making the seminar possible. Professor Maruyama emphasized the powerful entanglement of art and research throughout the conference, and how each presentation, whether directly or indirectly, was connected to the broader project of decolonization. He closed with hopeful remarks, expressing his wish that researchers and activists continue to collaborate in the pursuit of justice, supporting marginalized communities and protecting life in all its forms.