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Ainu People - of Japan

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Who are they:  The Ainu people of Japan are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.   They were culturally and physically distinct from their Japanese neighbours until the second half of the century.    Their language:   The traditional Ainu language has a number of dialects and almost completely disappeared by the 21st century.     A language revitalization movement was initiated to revive the language in the 1980s.  Their culture:  Their traditional dress included bark cloth often decorated with geometric designs.  The Ainu people were mostly a hunting and gathering culture.    Their religion:  The traditional Ainu religion is animism.   Every seven years they had their most important ritual where they captured a bear cub and then raised it as a member of their family.  The Ainu people today:  In the modern day,  most Ainu people have intermarried with the rest of Japan but their culture is still alive.   25,000 people of the Ainu decent lived on Hokkaido
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Mayans People - of Mexico

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Who they are:  The Mayans people of Mexico are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous people of Mesoamerica.   They can be found in Mexico,  Guatemala,  Belize,  El Salvador and Honduras.    Their language :  The Mayans people of Mexico speak Spanish,  English and Kriol.    Their culture:   The Mayans believed deeply in the cyclical nature of life - never was ever born and nothing ever died.   Their cosmological belief encouraged their imaginative efforts in architecture,  mathematics and astronomy.   Their religion:   Their religion is Christianity and Maya Religion.  The Maya Religion resulted from centuries of symbiosis with Roman Catholicism.  Many indigenous kingdoms practiced the Maya Religion far before the arrival of Christianity.    My experience with Mayans People:  although I have never been to Mexico yet,  I do love Mexican food.   I have always wanted to go and see Matchu Pitchu.   They are well known for their very interesting architecture and I would love to see that pa
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Sami People - of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark

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Who they are :  The Sammi people are also called Lapp.  They are a group of indigenous peoples who come from the Lapland and adjacent areas of northern Norway,  Sweden and Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Their language:  There are three Sami languages which are mutually unintelligible and sometimes considered different dialects of the same language.    Almost all Sami people are now bilingual and speak not only their original Sami language but also the language of the country they reside in (Norwegian,  Swedish,  Finish).   Their culture:  The Sami people are descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northern Scandinavia for thousands of year.   Reindeer herding was the basis of their economy until very recently.   The reindeer herding Sami lived in tents or turf huts and migrated with their herds with units of five or six families.    My experience with Sami people:   I met people from Sami at the Artic Winter Games in Greenland.  Although there were no athletes from
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Maori People - New Zealand

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Who they are:   The Maori People of New Zealand are ancient inhabitant from New Zealand who migrated from the Polynesian islands.   They still inhabit a large part of New Zealand today and their culture is very strong and alive. Their language:   The Maori people speak the eastern Polynesian sub group of the Eastern Oceanic languages spoken in New Zealand and the Cook Island.  Their language is one of the two official languages spoken in New Zealand.   There are approximately 100,000 to 150,000 Maori speakers word wide.   Population of Maori People:  14.9 % of the New Zealand population are part of the Maori ethnicity,  or 600,000 people.   Their culture:   The Maori people define themselves by their iwi (tribe) and hapu (sub-tribe).   Maori people are know to be experts in several skills including carving,  tattooing and healing.   They often are recognized around the world by their amazing tatoos.  The Maori Haka is an ancient traditional group dance often performed on the battlefi
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Inuit People - Canada

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Who they are:  The Inuit People are descendants of the Thule people who emerged from Alaska around 1000 years ago.   There are eight main Inuit ethnic groups.    Where they live:  They live in artic regions of North America as well as parts of Greenland.   In Canada they are 85 % of the population of Nunavut.  Their language:  The Inuit people speak Inuktitut,  Innuvialutktun,  Inuinaqtun and Greenlandic languages.  In Nunavut,  the official language is Inuktitut and it is the language thought in schools until high school to this day.   Their culture:  The Inuit People have adapted to extreme climatic conditions.  Their essential skills for survival in the very harsh climate where they live is hunting and trapping.   They have a long history of story telling as a way to pass events down through generations.    They are also known to be great dancers and they believe in mythology.    My experience with Inuit People:   In 2016 I went to Greenland to participate in the Artic Winter Ga
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