Kanako Uzawa Hokkaido University, Japan

Kanako Uzawa is a Ph.D Candidate at the Arctic University of Norway where she focuses on urban Indigeneity in Ainu communities in Japan, and is engaged as a Visiting Researcher at the Research Faculty of Media and Communication at Hokkaido University, Japan, where she is contributing to collaborative research and education on multifaceted articulations of Indigenous knowledge. Kanako spent her childhood and youth both in a local Ainu community, Nibutani, Hokkaido, and the urban city, Tokyo. She is a member of the Association of Rera in Tokyo where she learned Ainu songs and dances from elders and became a cultural performer as well as an advocate for the Ainu community on the international arena. This encouraged her to pursue an MA in Indigenous Studies at the Arctic University of Norway where she focused on comparative research between Norway and Japan regarding ILO C169, the Indigenous Tribal Peoples Convention. This led to an internship in the Project to Promote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (PRO 169) at the International Labour Organisation, Geneva Switzerland.

Kanako can be contacted at kanako.uzawa@uit.no