Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/04/inside-the-effort-to-save-an-i.html
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Why is there an old Georgia state flag on the wall in the background?
A similar story to many Native American tribes.
And, in my case, being a non-native Japanese speaker, The Japanese did the same thing to indigenous Ainu, and made it illegal to speak in Ainu, or teach their own culture.
That has since been reversed- but the effect is the same. There were only 5 native speakers of Ainu when I visited the comical Brown Bear theme park and Ainu village in 2008.
These people have had their culture turned into a literal theme park and now I am sure that at least one or two of those people have passed away. Ainu are all over northern Japan, either in ancestry or mixed ancestry and few live as full Ainu from what I know.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again language is a virus. It spreads like a virus, and is treated like a hostile virus by conquers.
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