Top: "As a young artist and political activist Bikky Sunazawa designed the Ainu flag, which first appeared in the 1973 May Day parade in Sapporo. The emblem consists of a red arrowhead (ay) whose color signifies aconite hunting poison, while the white pattern signifies the snows of the Hokkaido winter." Note that few women are present.

Bottom: "On March 27, 1992, Hokkaido Utari Kyokai (Ainu Association of Hokkaido) organized a demonstration in Tokyo to petition the Japanese government for quick passage of the Ainu Shinpo, a new law protecting the civil and cultural rights of the Ainu people. Most of the five hundred people who marched to the Diet Building of the Japanese government wore traditional Ainu robes. This was the culmination of an international campaign for indigenous rights that began to make its way into the villages of the Ainu during the 1970s." Note the greater presence of women in this protest.

From: Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. Eds. William W. Fitzhugh and Chisato O. Dubreuil. Washington DC: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in association with University of Washington Press, 1999.