They generally eat it, make art, and perhaps use parts for traditional clothing.
Japan on the other hand (a) has no Indigenous peoples following their traditional ways, (b) often violates the waters of other countries, and (c) has no basis for scientific inquiry (as ruled by the ICJ):
> The only people who do whaling in Canada are the First Nations
That makes things worse. You're defending something like a couple of million people for killing 4510 whales, while vilifying a country of 125 million for killing 2080 whales.
So, (a) it makes no difference to the intelligent creatures whether they are killed in the name of "science" or "traditional ways" (b) whales have extensive ranges, so going where they live vs. waiting for them to come to you are both just as bad, and (c) there is enough scientific reason for everyone to stop killing whales.
Strange fact: the Inuit are not classified as First Nations for some reason. Instead, they fall under the general rubric of "aboriginal". On the other hand, the Metis are regarded as First Nations, which makes little sense.
I think it would depend on who you asked for the Inuit. In places where they were both aboriginal and first nations those terms are mostly different articulations of the same thing, with personal preference of the person you are describing ultimately being the right choice.
This is a pretty good article on it through the lens of Australia.
(a) Wat. The Japanese people are just as indigenous as Canada's. Just because a people did not get conquered does not make them less indigenous. Unless your making a comment about the jomon...
Or did the ancestors of Japan's current whalers used to travel down to Antartica / the Southern Ocean in previous centuries? If the Japanese want to fish in their territorial / EEZ waters, then that is something that could be more acceptable. But that is not what they're doing AFAICT.
If the Intuit travelled thousands of miles and used vessels with commercial-grade refrigeration, then I think plenty of people would object to their actions as well.
The Ainu are believed to be descendants of the Joumon and related peoples, whose presence in the Japanese archipelago indeed precedes the introduction of the Yayoi people who are thought to be the main stock of the currently dominant ethnic group of Japan.
The thing is, though, the latter arrivals were some 2~3000 years ago. For comparison, the Yayoi incursion not only predates not only the entire traceable history of the Inuit people, but also that of the (unrelated) Dorset culture that they're believed to have driven out. I'm not sure there's a principled metric by which Canada's whalers are "Indigenous peoples following their traditional ways" and nearly all Japanese people aren't.
I agree with you. The whole "we were here first" argument tends to fall apart at a certain time horizon, almost like there's a statute of limitations on what constitutes "indigenous".
Because the aboriginal people don't take more than they need and they use the entire animal. The Japanese are doing it for the meat ($$$) exclusively.
Let's give the people that haven't destroyed their own environment a bit of leeway. IMO, a marker of intelligence isn't building rockets, it's not shitting where you eat.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling#Whaling_catches_by_loc...