Spiritual Ecology: Asian Animistic Perspective

Shawn Kiyotaka FUKUZAKI

Abstract
In the core of our thinking and attitude on environment, there has been conflict between
holistic view of human-nature relationship and modern dualistic view of human and nature.
It was argued that the problem of exploitative attitude in modern science is rooted in the ethos
of medieval Christianity (White, 1967) 1. Thereafter, other religions and/or spiritualities
especially polytheist ones are looked deeply into whether they are eco-centric and holistic to
provide another perspective for the new paradigm. To examine into animistic view, which is
commonly seen in indigenous beliefs, in human-nature relationship is to explore one of
possibilities of reconciling human-nature relationship. Animistic ecology has been sustainable
human-nature relationship for millennia, because it was based on an intimate native
knowledge of environment. Shinto, which has its roots in animism has a holistic view of
human-nature relationship although it accommodated to allow modern exploitative attitude in
development of environment. On the other hand, indigenous belief of Ainu in Japanese
Archipelagos and Orang Aslis in Malaysia have retained strong eco-centric view of humannature relationship and practice while the indigenous peoples are marginalised from the
economic development.

In this paper, I attempt to offer explanation for few different

animistic belief views on a human-nature relationship with common idea of symbiosis in

comparison. Historic and contemporary evidence and arguments will be presented.
Keywords: Spirituality, Ecology, Animism, Politheism, Nature, Environment, Shinto,
Indigenous, Orang Asli, Ainu, Shinto, Japanese, Malaysia, Symbiosis, Biodiversity

Introduction
All of our ancestors used to live in forests long before developing agricultural fields
with writing system and followed by towns, cities and industries and complex culture
were created. The deforestation has been taken place since humans inhabitance in
earth, but it went beyond sustainable state when each civilisations lost their courses by
splitting connections with nature.

Especially it was largely in the result of rapid

industrialisation, globalisation, urbanisation to pursue the dynamic economic

development since industrial revolution in 18th and 19th century. On one hand, the
development resulted pulling out billions of people from poverty and boasted a record
of improving human welfare in merely three centuries.

On the other hand, the

historical cycles of human greed have been apparent. For example, we observe
crushes in solving global environmental issues between developing countries and
developed countries. We have scarcely progressed beyond the intentions expressed at
the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (Ghosh, 2009). In Copenhagen, Climate
Talks (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCC; COP15)
that was held in December 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon expressed
frustration for reaching the agreement on a climate change treaty. Both developing
and developed countries are pointing fingers: who are to be blamed for cause of
ongoing climate change. The focusing on differences rather than common stands is
the central issue to tackle the global problem.
In September 13, 2009, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adapted by 144 votes including Malaysia and
Japan, eleven nations abstained and four nations2 voted against. This is a historic
achievement to begin the restoration for the histories of collective abuse of human
rights on one of minority groups in the world. It is important for us to ensure its
implementation procedure, and important to educate people why it is such a crucial
thing to do. Simply say, because it is all part of us. Taking care of indigenous rights
is taking care of our collective rights. Another big reason is to study and share
animistic environmental view and its important ecological contribution from great
heritages of indigenous people. With the industrialisation without limitation, we have
seen the destruction of the environment and it has led us to the crisis for environment
and humanity.

Methodology
Examining articles and monographs. Please refer to references.
1. Animism in Japan and Malaysia
1.1 Background of Shinto
Shinto is one of indigenous spiritual practices in Japanese archipelago. The vibrant
ancient Shinto belief is in the sense of finding kamis3 [ ] in nature and atmosphere,
the sense of not being able to express as idea, and the sense of timelessness and life
circle. In sacred places, nature and artificial elements can be used as yorishiro [
],

object to which a spirit is drawn or summoned.

There are different opinions on what is Shinto among divinity scholars: a

lifestyle of ancestor worship; a belief system of primitive and simple nature worship;
and a mixed form of animism and shamanism 4. Ueda describes Shinto is the
traditional life-value system of the Japanese which evolves in celebrating kamis5. It
has been evolving through hunting and gathering age, semi-agricultural age,
agricultural age to all the way through technology and industrial age. During hunting
and gathering, and Mesolithic - Jmon period, the main worship was that of fire,
along with other natural forces such as sun, water, land, plants and trees. When
people in the archipelagos started to adapt iron agricultural tools in agriculture in
Yayoi period (Neolithic and Iron Age), the worship of fire was replaced by the
worship of sun and water, both of which are essential need for agriculture 6. Sun was
the source of everything on earth and became a symbol of life 5. On the other hand,
water is coming down from heaven and it became associated with misogi [ ],
mountain ascetic purification.

Water cleanses guilt or sin, and impurity. Its a

symbol of natures cleansing action and life force.

Kamis are manifestation of the existential essence, which is life force of
individual existences of both organisms and non-organisms in environment7.

In

theory, every existence has kamis quality. Kamis do not create the universe, but selfgenerating (Yaoyorozu no kami [ ]) as manifestation of existing essence of
things and existence which possess spirit8. Shinto can be categorised as polytheism
with multiple kamis are assembled into Takamagahara [], a pantheon of gods as
well as Chinese beliefs such as Taoism, Hinduism and Greek religion. And it is
categorised as animist belief as well as Indigenous religions in Malay archipelagos
and Indochina, Hinduism, Sikhism, Pantheism and Paganism.
3

1.2 Background of Ainu belief

Ainu belief is another indigenous spiritual practice in Japanese archipelagos.
However, because Ainu people have been under long oppression and ethnocide under
Japanese rule in modern time, the existence of its practice is in a critical situation. It
is categorised as politheism as well. Each animals, plants, life-tools, nature
phenomena and diseases are considered having divine nature called ramat and they
are all considered kamuy9. Ainu people distinguish Aynu Mosir (the human land) and
Kamuy Mosir (the divines world).

Ramat summons various entities with some

important roles in Aynu Mosir and returns to Kamuy Mosir when they are done with
their job. Although, kamuys are not absolute transcendent divines. Should kamuys
commit an unreasonable doing, Ainu people would protest against it.
Iomante, the bear festival, is widely seen among indigenous peoples in
Eurasian Taiga, boreal forests10. Ramat who is summoned in a bear are considered to
deliver bear meat and fur to Aynu Mosir. The festival has a meaning to entertain
Ramat with big treat and ask it go back to Kamuy Mosir.
Ainus religious ceremonies are called kamuynomi for various kamuys with
initiation for Ape chif kamuy, the kamuy (divine) of fire. In the centre of their belief,
there is yukar, the set of sagas that form a long and rich tradition of oral literature.
Kamuychikap, the kamuy of owl sings:
Shirokanipe ranran pishkan, konkaniperanran pishkan. arian rekpo
chiki kane tapan ponchise irukai neko kani chise poro chise ne chikar
okere, chiseupshoro kamuiimoma chiekarkar, kamuikosonte pirkaike
chitunashkarkar chiseupshoro chietomte.
Kamuychikap is known as kotankor kamuy for protecting Kotan (village) from
famines and ensuring rich biodiversity of forests. Kamuychikap flies with singing
Around spangling-spangling silver drops, around spangling-spangling golden
drops... and helps poor family to get prospered over one night in this yukar. This is a
good example for Ainus believing in kamuys through nature and their indigenous
knowledge on biodiversity and ecology.
1.3 Shinto perspective of nature
Shintos myths can be found in Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters [ ]), Nihonshoki (The Chronicle of Japan [ ]), Manysh (Collection of Ten Thousand
4

Leaves []) and other ancient literatures. Worship of Musubi, force of formation,
is obvious there. A new life is formed out in nature. People sensed powerful force of
formation and had in awe-inspiring realization and gratitude. The Japanese word
Shizen [ ] is widely used to describe nature in contemporary Japanese language.
The idea originally came from Taoism11. The word appears in Kojiki for once and
Nihon-shoki for nine times,

as these literatures were formed after importing

Buddhism and the Chinese studies. However, it did not mean a matter in modern
science term, and it described self-generating nature; i.e. nature was considered the
spiritual being.

In ancient Yamato-kotoba [ ] that is original Japanese

vocabularies, there was no word to describe a matter without a spirit or a soul.

Everything is expected to be with spirit, even mono (a thing) was considered mononoke (a supernatural being).
Nature has been considered as kamis in Shinto. In Osada-no-kimis tanka (a
short poem) from Manyosh, this small island is a manifestation of kami. Mountains,
rivers, plants, trees and animals are all regarded as kamis or other spiritual beings.
Kiku-ga gotoku makoto ttoku kusushiku-mo
Kamu-sabi-oruka kore-no Mizushima 12
245

Kamis are able to give birth to other beings in the universe. Therefore, kamis,
nature and humans are all interrelated as one. They are all related through actions of
birth. In Shinto, human celebrate kamis through nature as mediate. Everything is
child of kamis; i.e. all are genealogically connected. Therefore, all beings, human and
non-human share one ancestor; i.e. they have the same origin 13. It is similar to other
indigenous beliefs such as Ainus, Orang Aslis and Native Americans14. On the other
hand, we can see similarities with Indian ancient script Vedas and Chinese Daoism
and Confucianism15. In this kind of world-view, it is essential to respect nature and
human existence is merely a part of the universe.
On the contrast, Judeo-Christian world-view is that the nature, including
animals and plants, is a creation of the absolute God and nothing more than that. Only
human is separated from the nature, and created by the God as a free and sentient
being.

1.4. Animism in Malaysia: overview

5

Animism is practiced widely through out Malaysia. In the Malay system, almost
everything in the environment that note is taken of has the power to concentrate
essence, i.e. possessing a soul. Benjamin discussed that semangat referred essence
or spirit in older Malay16. There is a progressive change in the character of spirit
manifestations from bounded to unbounded, from soul to ghost and from well-defined
to vague. In the Malay system, the degree of differentiation varies with the distance
from man of the defining categories. Sharmanism is practiced especially by bomohs17
in Peninsular Malaysia. Orang Asli people are largely animists and believe in that
each animals, plants, life-tools, nature phenomena and diseases are considered having
divine nature called in different names in each languages. Indigenous people of
Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia have believed in animism. Majority of Chinese
generally believe in a believe system whose nature came from animism and ancestral
worship and influence of Buddhism, Taoism. Some Indians also believe in Hindu
belief whose nature came from animism. In this paper, however, I would like to
concentrate discussing on Orang Aslis belief in Peninsular Malaysia.
1.5 Orang Aslis belief
In this article, the Orang Asli (aborigine or original people) groups refer the
indigenous people in peninsula part of Malaysia except for the Orang Kuala and
Orang Kanaq of Johor18. They are the indigenous people of Malaysia. And, they have
the highest rate of poverty as well as we see similar case in Ainus in Japanese
Archipelagos.
Temiar people in state of Perak and Pahang, in principle, recognize every
thing in the world become imbued with soul as similar to Malay Animism 19. It is
quite similar to Shinto and Ainu belief as well.

On the other hand, in other things

such as large boulders, natural phenomena, diseases, dragons or modes of cooking,

the presence of a soul has to be revealed first to a shaman or dreamer before other
people realises20. Souls are not unitary and are split into opposite parts as good or evil
morally, culture and nature cosmologically and so on. Also for Semang religion, the
people believe in environment may come to have a spirit and a soul. But souls exist
in one form only, unlike Temiars belief. And unlike Malays, Semangs do not regard
any differences between the soul-embodying properties of people from those of plants
or animals that run parallel to Temiars21.
1.6 Orang Aslis perspective of nature
6

Similar to Ainus cases, Orang Aslis oral stories are all based on close observation
and understanding of the environment and a belief in the spirits influence.

Their

tradition is a storage and means of transmission of environmental wisdom among

generations. Their knowledge on herbs and plants, as well as their way to deal with
the nature should greatly benefit for the entire society to rethink about the humannature relationship.
All indigenous communities in Malaysia are showing gratitude for receiving
the harvest by sharing, which is similar to Ainus Iomante and they can reduce the
number of hunting and taking only what they need from the natural environment 22.
Its loss will have an effect on the destruction of natural ecosystems and to maintain
Orang Asli culture, language and their identity. It is essential to study into Orang
Aslis animistic ecological knowledge to share in Malaysia and beyond when we look
for lessons and wisdom.
2. Animism and Symbiosis
2.1 Environment problem and indigenous knowledge in Japan: Historic
Evidence
As Japan took the route of industrialisation after Meiji era, there have been conflicts
between development and environment depletion.

Kumagusu Minamikata (1867-

1941) was the first person that used the term of ecology in Japan 23. He regarded a
glove of Shinto shrine as essential part in Japanese view of life, nature and the world,
and educated people with ecological knowledge. He protested and protected these
gloves when the government was attempting centralizing Shinto shrine system,
merging shrines (roughly 80,000 out of 190,435) and destroying many gloves for
developing purpose24. He argued that it did not make sense to do them since the
governments publicised intention was to get good result in worshiping Kamis in
tenchi, or heaven and earth. On the other hand, the biologist kept advocating groves
precious value for biodiversity. His protest was recognised by the government and the
sacred island of Kajima in Wakayama was preserved, and eventually the National Diet
(then Japanese Imperial Diet) to called all votes against merging shrines on March 2,
1978, although could not stop depletion in many other gloves25.
Shoeki Ando (1703-1762) advocated organic cycle of the universe from
Shinto-naturalist perspective and that people should go back to agriculture.

He

explained how development in a mine resulted in flooding and people contracting

7

disease in northern part of Honsh, the main island in Japanese Archipelagos. He

wrote Shizen Shineid (Managing Society Truly in the Way of Nature [ ])
and criticised Shinto after Kojiki and Buddhist influence26. He was the pioneer in
Ecological ideas in Japan and was 100 years earlier than German biologist and
philosopher Ernst Haeckel who advocated ecology in Europe27.
But, largely, the Shinto ecological world-view did not succeeded in preventing
environmental pollutions from happening in Japanese archipelagos and other part of
the planet. Upon reflection and soul-searching on environmental issue, there have
been new approaches of reviving co-existing ethos28 with nature, such as Mori no
Shis [ ] (Idea from Forest, Yasuda, 1995), Neo Animism [ ]
(Iwata, 1989) , Fdo-ron [ ] (Watsuji), Amimizumu Saiko [ ]
(Rethinking Animism, Umehara, 1989-05). Wakabayashi set a high valuation of Mori
no Shis, re-evaluating nature co-existing ethos from hunting and collecting in Jmon
period, but criticized animistic world-view has negative side: irrational fears for
nature, which is obstruction for responsibility for protecting environment 29. Further
more, he criticized Mori no Shis and Neo Animism that they are outdated as modern
lifestyle is no longer based on animistic environment, and that they do not propose
how animism can be revived in modern lifestyle. Further more, these revival ideas fall
into ethnocentrism and lose bigger picture in the world. Also, Wakabayashi argued
Yasudas Mori no Shis is not able to offer a valid argument on environmental justice
when the environment issues are globally interconnected and there is no point simply
arguing animistic idea to the people from the third world countries. However, I argue
that it is constructive to find common grounds of environment awareness and
knowledge

in

people

with

different

cultures

and

religious

backgrounds.

Wakabayashis point: the ethos should not be apart from reality, is very important. It is
worth examining animist roots for solution for environmental issues, although we
need to keep our feet on ground. I will argue about one project that is fruits of
animistic world-view and practical activism in 2.4.
2.2 Environment problem and indigenous knowledge in Japan: Contemporary
Evidence
Japanese government voted for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, and carried all votes in the National Diet
(parliament) to officially admit Ainu people as Japanese indigenous people in June
8

2008 after almost completely ethnocided the people and culture.

At last, the

government set the commission for implementing Ainu policy, however, the rights of
Ainu people are continuously neglected locally despite the new understanding of Ainu
as indigenous people nationally.

The worst example is denial of the rights of

indigenous people due to the planned construction of an industrial waste dumping site
in Aynu Mosir at Mopet (quiet river in Ainu) or Mobetsu river area. The plan has been
protested by local the Ainus and NGOs, and it is the fight for indigenous peoples
rights of own land, conservation of environment and the cultural rights under
UNDRIP30. The river is important: first reason is for Ainus spirituality Kamuy
chep-nomi, the celebrating ceremony for returning sacred salmon; second reason is for
the Mopet basins rich biodiversity - a rich ecosystem of animals, fish and birds,
including bear, trout, and eagles. The forest there provides a variety of nutritious food
to the living creatures in the downstream lakes and seacoast. The area is rich in flora
and fauna31. However, Hokkaido government approved the plan on July 30 despite
the protest32.

The secular government that has adopted the western industrial

development model has been the main structural problem for the spiritual ecology.
2.3. Relation between Shinto and Ainu belief
There are many similarities between Shinto and Ainu belief: especially how they see
life and death. Shinto is characterised as animism by recognising rei [] which is the
Ainu equivalent of ramat, or essence (soul and spirit) in environment; plants, animals
and natural phenomena. It is also strongly characterised by the world-view which
reis cycle in konoyo (this world [ ]) and anoyo (the other world [ ]) and
Ainu also believes in the world-view 33. Irimoto explained idea of symbiosis has been
seen in Ainus shamanism and other Japanese Archipelagos and Eurasian indigenous
world-views. With his study on revival of Ainu death ritual, he argued that idea of
symbiosis may be possible to generalise but it would be difficult without
establishing reciprocal relations between the two groups34. Idea of symbiosis, the
term originally in biology, can be seen its root in the animistic world-view of cycle of
life, revival and rebirth.
2.4. Development, Indiginous Spirituality and Ecology: Project with Symbiosis
Malaysian government also voted for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples in September 2007. However, Tanah keramat (sacred lands) are
9

disappearing and being destroyed for creating dams in Perak, Selangor, Pahang and
other places where indigenous reside35. Because most of the natural resources are
available to where the indigenous peoples reside, it is invariable that they are the most
affected. This is exactly the same case with Nibutani Dam being built right at Ainus'
sacred land in Hokkaido. In the name of development, which is often in economic
terms, the indigenous people in the areas have to pay the cost that cannot be recovered
from. A simple balance sheet approach ignores the distribution of gains and losses 36.
Building Dam is a short-term solution and harms the long-term consequences. The
emphasis should be made on the spiritual damage due to the animist nature of
indigenous beliefs. In animism world-view, people cannot separate themselves from
their native land.

The land is sacred and people cannot practice their religion

elsewhere37. Often, in the compensation package, indigenous people are offered to

relocate to another place with better living environment from government or
establishments point of view. It is obvious that indigenous peoples spiritual damage
has not been taking into account.
Great effort to revive sacred forest has been made near Nibutani Dam in
Hokkaido, the northern island in Japan by Green Earth Network, an NPO from Osaka
since 1993, the International Year for the World's Indigenous People.

The project

was named Cicornay, or our forest in Ainu language. The aims are to promote
conservation and revival under National Trust to hand down its natural and cultural
asset for future generation. Eventually the main movement was handed to locals of
Nibutani from the NPO with careful implementation.

In the background of the

project, there are two factors: firstly, people at the NPO had an awareness of the
structural similarity on forest depletion issues in China and Hokkaido; secondly, Ainu
people and their allies at Nibutani had a crisis awareness of its future inheritance of
Ainu culture, including identity, spirituality and connection with environment. With
donations, National Trust Cicornay purchased forests near Nibutani Dam and started
to revive them. On the other hand, it had been organising study groups for Ainu
culture, language, about forest Nibutani Dam Trial38, knowledge on indigenous
peoples in the world and ecology. The project has not been implemented easily, but
has been carried out patiently for 17 years. One of the keys for success is the idea of
kysei [ ] or symbiosis, which is strongly seen in animistic world-view: Ainu
belief and Shinto. In this case, Ainu culture has been oppressed by Japanese culture
and industrial development, the idea of symbiosis is mainly coming from Ainus
10

world-view and reflection of consequence of development. Ainus world-view has

common background to share the idea with Shinto-Buddhism one. The project has
been the fruits of both Ainu people and Japanese who share animistic world-view.
Yodono analysed the keys for its success further39:
1. Opportunity for experiential study
2. Multi-dimensional field of study: (Ainu) culture, history, natural
environment, speeches by people concerned in the issue, social
structure and others
3. Simultaneous development of experiential and (theoretical) studies
4. Constructive solution for conflict between people concerned in the
issue locally and those who intervene in the issue (people who
originally started the project in the NPO)
Especially, the last point is supported by the theory and attitudes of future-oriented
evolved from symbiosis and it has become ethos of the project.
3. Conclusion
Animism is widely practiced in both Malaysia and Japan and it offers environmental
knowledge and idea to solve environmental conflicts and problems. Divines in
Animism are manifestation of the existential essence, which are life force of
individual existences of both organism and non-organism in environment. Humans
celebrate divines through nature as mediate. Animitic ecological world-view did not
succeeded largely to prevent environmental pollutions and depletion from happening
in Japanese and Malaysian archipelagos and other part of the planet, and the
governments are not taking consideration of indigenous peoples' basic rights. These
are the people who are most affected and it is why spiritual ecology and
environmental ethic with religious and cultural perspectives are needed for solving the
problem. We are able to conserve and revive forest with idea of symbiosis, and
considerable implementation as we see in historical and contemporary evidences. Idea
of symbiosis can be seen its root in the animistic world-view of cycle of life, revival
and rebirth.

Endnotes
11

1.

TheMedievalhistoryscholarwhoexaminedhowdidtheecologiccrisisstartfromcultural
perspective.HeclearlyarguedthatChristianitydidnotonlyestablishadualismofmanand
naturebutalsoinsistedthatitisGodswillthatmanexploitnatureforhisproperendsbased
onbiblicalmandateofGenesis1:28.

2.

The countries that voted against were Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States
of America.

3.

It means divine entities in Japanese.

4.

Kamata, Shint-ygo no Kiso-chishiki (Basic Knowledge on Shinto Terms), Tokyo, 1991, pp.
15

5.

Ueda, Shint Shingaku Ronk (Study on Shinto Divinity), Tokyo, 1991, pp. 191

6.

Kamata, 1991, pp. 20 21

7.

Ueda, 1991, pp. 8

8.

Ueda, 1991, pp. 8

9.

http://www.jiten.info/dic/asia/kamuy.html

10. http://mopetsanctuary.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
11. Ueda, Shint Shingaku Ronk (Study on Shinto Divinity), Tokyo, 1991, pp. 81
12. Ueda, Shint Shingaku Ronk (Study on Shinto Divinity), Tokyo, 1991, pp. 83
13. Ueda, Shint Shingaku Ronk (Study on Shinto Divinity), Tokyo, 1991, pp. 82
14. Whitt, Roberts, Norman, Grieves, Indigenous perspectives, A Companion to Environment
Philosophy, Dale Jamieson (ed.), Maldon, 2000, pp 4
15. Wang, Nihon Shint no Gendaiteki-igi (Contemporary meanings of Japanese Shintoo), 1997,
pp. 150-151
16. Benjamin, Indigenous Religious Systems of the Malay Peninsula, 1979, pp. 11
17. Benjamin, Tribal Communities in the Malay World, 2003, pp. 371
18. Benjamin, 1979, pp. 9
19. Benjamin, 1979, pp. 13
20. Benjamin, 1979, pp. 14
21. Benjamin, 1979, pp. 14
22. Lasimbang, Participatory Mechanisms for Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Knowledge
& Biodiversity in Asia, 2004, pp. 159
23. Kamata, 1991, pp. 33
24. Wang, 1997, pp. 144-145
25. Nakase, Minamikata Kumagusu o Shiru Jiten (Minamikata Dictionary)
http://www.aikis.or.jp/~kumagusu/books/jiten_nakase.html#jinja_goshi
26. And, Shizen Shinei-d (Managing Society in the Way of Nature), Digital Library, University
of Tokyo, 1999 http://gazo.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sizen/
27. Wang, 1997, pp. 147-148

12

28. A Greek word of distinctive spirit of a culture or an era.

29. Wakabayashi, The Ethical Approach and the Approach from Ethos in Environmental Thought,
Japanese Association for Religious Studies, pp. 179
30. http://mopetsanctuary.blogspot.com/
31. http://mopetsanctuary.blogspot.com/
32. Hokkaido Shimbun: http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/cont/video/?c=news&v=620181490001
33. Umehara, Animizumu Saik (Rethinking Animism), 1989-05, pp. 17
34. Irimoto, Revival of Ainu Death Ritual: Conflict Resolution, Symbiosis and Agency, 2004, pp.
57
35. Nicholas, Resettlement and Reparations of Dam Affected Peoples: A Review of the Report of
the World Commission of Dams with special reference to Malaysia, 2001, pp. 1
36. Nicholas, 2001, pp. 1
37. Whitt, Roberts, Norman, Grieves, 2000, pp 4: When the white man talks of relocation he talks
of finding a new place to live, a new job, a new place to pray to his God The white man can
practice his religion anywhere, he does not know the earth. The Dine are different, the land is
sacred to us, we cannot practice our religion elsewhere, only on the land where we are
known It is like your family You could not leave your relatives if they were sick it is in
this way that we much stay with this land, our relative. (in jenny Manybeads et al. 1989, pp.
228, 230)
38. Nibutani Dam Trial: Japanese National Government was sued by local Ainu people over
construction of Nibutani Dam and Kamuy Mosir, the sacred place for Ainus. See
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9410
39. Yodono, Development process of the reproduction activity of local environment based on
Ainu culture, 2004, pp. 64

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Contact details: Shawn Kiyotaka FUKUZAKI [ ]

Faculty of Science, University of Malaya 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
E-mails: shwnkytk@siswa.um.edu.my planetshanti@gmail.com
Website: University of Malaya: www.um.edu.my
Blog: http://planetshanti.tumblr.com/

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