Agenda

16 Mar 2026 10:30

Small farmers and resurgent indigeneity discourse in Okinawa

Online

CONFERENCE
Small farmers and resurgent indigeneity discourse in Okinawa

Megumi Chibana
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract: This talk brings us into the lives of small farmers and cultivators living in rural and small-town communities in Okinawa. Megumi Chibana’s research is anchored in the study of island people as political protagonists and their everyday practices for social transformation. Urban-centered, continental, and state perspectives often view islands as small and insignificant, but they are a microcosm of structures and forces to which small-scale farmers must respond. How do farmers and their land-based practices challenge (or at least circumvent) the logic that structures settler colonialism and militarism onto small islands and shapes Indigenous-state relations? While small island farmers in Okinawa are often outside of formally and internationally organized activism and larger insurgencies, by taking an Indigenous studies approach, Megumi argues that they have engaged in various small-scale, deeply rooted, yet always changing decolonial acts. By caring for their cultural heritage and agency through grounded practices, small farmers work to reclaim, restore, and regenerate lived ecologies on what was once called the military’s junk heap. Farming is an act of self-determination that has endured in Okinawa while cultivating ground for Indigenous world-making.

Monday, March 16, 2026.
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (CET)
The lecture will be held in English, online on GMeet.

Online registration is available
until March 15 2026 at 8 p.m.
(CET) through this link
You will receive a participation link on March 15 after 9 p.m. (CET).
If you do not receive the link, please send an email to gesshin@unive.it

Organized by Stella Rizzuti, Student Association GESSHIN, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
For more information and reservations
Instagram: gesshin_cafoscari 
Facebook: Gesshin – Associazione studentesca Università Ca’ Foscari 
Youtube: GESSHIN Ca' Foscari University
E-mail: gesshin@unive.it

This initiative has been financed through Ca Foscari University’s funds for student activities.

Organizzatore

Department of Asian and North African Studies; Student Association GESSHIN, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Allegati

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