What are the characteristics and significance of indigenous people’s construction of “places of memory” in spaces that contradict geographical imaginations of their indigeneity? To address this question, I focused on the Ainu people in Japan and examined their construction of places of memory outside Hokkaido, with special reference to Shiba Park, a site associated with their schooling in Tokyo at the beginning of the Meiji era, and the Namboku-no-to monument, a cenotaph for the war dead of the Battle of Okinawa.

For the Ainu in modern times, not only Hokkaido but also the spaces south of the Tsugaru Straits have functioned as important areas of activity. However, the colonialist geographical imagination that links Ainu indigeneity only to Hokkaido has prevailed in Japan, and issues concerning their rights and dignity as an indigenous people have been trivialized as local issues in Hokkaido and not adequately addressed even within Hokkaido. Under these circumstances, the Ainu living in and outside Hokkaido have constructed places of memory outside Hokkaido. This indicates that a structure has been established among them for this purpose. The focus of the commemorations has been solely on modern events, likely because there was no structure in place to construct places of memory for the premodern Ainu outside Hokkaido.

Furthermore, places of memory outside Hokkaido have been constructed mainly through memorial services as performances rather than the material arrangement of the landscape. This construction occurs against the backdrop of the geographical imagination that links Ainu indigeneity to Hokkaido, leaving the position of places of memory in an unstable state. This characteristic is not found in constructing places of memory within Hokkaido.

One reason for constructing places of memory outside Hokkaido, despite the challenging environment, is the Ainu’s recognition that focusing on space and memory outside Hokkaido has effectively addressed various problems they have faced both within and beyond Hokkaido. In this sense, the construction of places of memory outside Hokkaido by the Ainu can be understood as a process of conflict between the oppressive geographical imagination that regards the space outside Hokkaido as contrary to Ainu indigeneity and another geographical imagination that sees in the same space the possibility of restoring rights and dignity.

In summary, this study has shown that indigenous people’s construction of places of memory in spaces that contradict the geographical imagination of their indigeneity has different characteristics and significance from their movements in spaces that match such imaginations. To understand the construction of places of memory by indigenous people, it is necessary to shed light not only on cases in spaces that match the geographical imagination but also on cases in spaces that contradict it.