The indigenous people of Northern Japan are using a Māori technique to revitalise their language, which is at risk of dying out. The Ainu language is listed as 'critically endangered', but language teacher Kenji Sekine is on a mission to keep it alive.
"They are struggling to survive their culture and language," he told Newshub.
The Ainu were the earliest settlers of Hokkaido, in Northern Japan. But the Japanese forcibly colonised them for centuries, and it wasn't until just five years ago that Ainu were officially recognised as indigenous people of the country.
Sekine said they're still facing many challenges.
"There's still lots of discrimination against Ainu happening... when they get married with Japanese people, or when they try to get some job," he said.
Sekine's wife is Ainu, one of an estimated population of less than 20,000. He's passionate about saving the language, as it's listed as 'critically endangered', and says there are no figures on how many people can speak it.
"We don't know the exact number, but unfortunately we can say there is no native speaker, no first language speaker," said Sekine.
Sekine wants to restore Ainu to being people's first language, so he's enlisted the help of Māori language expert and advocate Ruakere Hond. For over 10 years Sekine's travelled to Aotearoa with a group of Ainu people to learn about the Te Ataarangi method of language acquisition.
"It takes one generation to lose the language, and three generations to recover it. So you have to build it as part of the intergenerational language use. They have a long way to go. We have a long way to go, and we're on this path together," said Hond.
A key tool is the use of Cuisenaire Rods as a visual aid, and the switching off of the conscious brain to create an immersion environment.
"We need to stop trying to find all of the answers with our conscious brain and just go with the flow. Like children. We just want to engage with the story, we want to engage with the person who's teaching us. That's really what Te Ataarangi has been able to share with Ainu," he said.
Hond said there are certain rules within Te Ataarangi.
"The rules govern how the group will function and everyone will be supported. No one will be laughed at, an actual fact, make lots of mistakes! The main thing is you have to korero," said Hond.
The relationship between Māori and Ainu is far from new, in fact it dates back 100 years to when Ratana's founder visited Japan in 1924.
"They're like part of our whanau - our extended whanau of using art, but also of language revitalisation - and we look up to them. Every one of them is hugely courageous. Brave in every sense of the word because it's super difficult to revitalise the language. It's not easy," Hond said.
And Sekine's hard work is paying off, he said it's been a successful strategy.
"Between us, maybe five or six people, we can continue the conversation without using any Japanese," he said.
He hopes the language will continue to grow as the Japanese become more accepting of Ainu people.
"My dream is to make a kindergarten, where everything happens in Ainu," he said.
A dream inspired by Aotearoa's kohanga reo and kura kaupapa, and no doubt one that Māori educators can help them achieve.
Alexa Cook and camera operator Richard Cooper travelled to Japan courtesy of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
