Finding Our Voice

In this chapter, I draw on comparative ethnographic research with two Indigenous peoples in cities, Ainu in Tokyo and Inuit in Montreal, to illustrate how they have had to create positions from which to speak. Essentially, they have had to ‘find their voice’. Far from being freely given, ‘voice’ is a vulnerable and contested process, yet it is also a practice of care. In two specific acts of caring citizenship—a ceremonial ritual in Tokyo and a radio show in Montreal—I show how key Ainu and Inuit actors have created new words and forms of expression to return people’s attention to what is at stake in everyday life. In doing so, they point to the possibility of new urban articulations of Indigenous citizenship

Ethnography · Everyday life · Indigenous · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Indigenous Studies and Ecology