Japan, Hokkaido, 2023. After 150 years of forced assimilation, the indigenous Ainu people are regaining strength in their quest for identity, recognition, and reconciliation.

Hokkaido is a vast region of winter beauty, featuring forests, volcanoes, lakes, and wild coastlines. Before Japanese colonization, it was home to the Ainu, a hunter-fisher people with deep animist beliefs and a rich culture. After a century and a half of forced assimilation and discrimination, their traditional way of life, customs, language, and beliefs nearly disappeared.

Traditional culture is difficult to define today due to this repression and intermarriage, but the Ainu are reinventing their identity and are increasingly proud of their origins, gradually moving away from the shame associated with the discrimination that still persists. Following long-standing political and social advocacy efforts, signs of progress are emerging, though they remain ambiguous.

This work tells the story of the reclaiming of a collective identity by those who embody it in today’s world: caught between advocacy, preservation, and adaptation, Ainu identity is as powerful as the complexity of its resilience.