Who’s Missing on the Mat? Interview with Malory Graham

Malory Graham Sensei started Aikido training in 1988 with Paul Sylvain Sensei and founded Seattle Aikikai in 1997 as a community-run dojo. She received her 6th Dan from Yoshimitsu Yamada Shihan in 2014 and continues to develop her own training with Yoko Okamoto Sensei and Chris Mulligan Sensei of Aikido Kyoto.  Along with teaching Aikido and yoga, she has had tandem careers as a filmmaker and non-profit Executive Director. She has made films to promote women in Aikido and has been deeply committed to the social justice/youth development field.

Josh Gold: Thank you for taking the time to talk with Aikido Journal. Can you share a bit about your Aikido origin story? 

Malory Graham: When I first started Aikido in 1988 at Hampshire College, I had two pathways that I was interested in, both film production and Aikido, side-by-side. And for many years, I did both. I ran a film school for girls, specifically trying to get more women into the film industry in Hollywood, as well as running a dojo in Seattle.  

I’ve always loved having those two different components of my life. That interest led me to make Aikido videos in the ’90s which was a fun way to get to know the larger Aikido community, both nationally and internationally. I produced videos for some of the prominent Shihan (master teachers) in America, as well as making a documentary called Holding Up Half the Sky, which profiled 10 pioneering women in The United States Aikido Federation. That project took me all over the country interviewing women Aikido instructors who were running their own dojos. 

I know you’ve recently put a larger focus on analyzing and finding ways to improve diversity and inclusion in the Aikido world. Before the pandemic, Aikido Journal led the largest survey ever done in the art of Aikido. The results illuminated some important facts. There’s a real lack of young people in Aikido. Only 16% of Aikido practitioners are women, and we’re heavily underrepresented in Latino and black practitioners. What’s your current thinking on this?

Your study was really illuminating and got me thinking. So, if we are looking at an art that we all love, that we want to thrive, it really begs the question of “Who’s missing on the mat?” And if we want to grow the art, I think it makes sense to look at those missing demographics and figure out why they’re missing. If we want to grow the art, we should spend less time online arguing about the effectiveness of Aikido and instead put our energy towards getting these missing demographics involved.

If there is any martial art that has a philosophical underpinning that supports this idea of inclusion, I really do believe it’s Aikido. That is why the demographics are so troubling. I can count the number of African-American dojo-cho that I know on one hand. And you are more likely to see women running the registration table than teaching at some aikido camps. It’s 2022 and that is baffling to me.

If you are a dojo-cho and want to grow your dojo and the art, you should look at the census tipping point projections. Our white majority is going to tip in 2043 with a huge rise in both Asian and Hispanic Americans. For me, that’s fascinating to look at and ask, “How do we plan for that in our dojos?”

One of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quotes is “Love is not the answer. It is the assignment.” O-Sensei left us with the same mandate. So, as we look at inclusion in Aikido, it is a natural outgrowth of the physical practice of Aikido which is about creating harmony rather than control by force,  that we mirror that off the mat by cultivating diversity and lifting up minority populations. 

We talked about this in some detail when you contributed time to helping get Budo Accelerator off the ground during the pandemic. The organization has had pretty good success in building a diverse group of Aikido practitioners since then. We’ve been using my dojo as a home base to refine what we’re doing before partnering with dojos to run programs in other regions.  Even before Budo Accelerator, women comprised 50% of our dojo, but now 60% of students are in the 16-24 age group, and over 70% are non-white.  I can tell you that having an influx of young people from diverse backgrounds brings great energy into our dojo. Our dojo is better and stronger for the change.  

Yes! I was so inspired by working with Budo Accelerator students. It is a great example of ways that dojos can be proactive in attracting a younger diverse student body. And I think young people are hungry for what Aikido has to offer if it is presented in an inclusive way. 

Another project that I’ve been excited about is the new Aikido IDEA Project (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access) under the leadership of Sam Taitel and César San Miguel. The goal is to help dojos have those hard but constructive conversations about who is missing from our mats. They are putting out a fabulous newsletter with thought-provoking articles as well as resources for dojos. The project is also giving away grant money for diversity and inclusion projects. It’s one thing to talk about making Aikido more inclusive, but another thing to do the work. And often that work needs money. 

What kind of diversity projects are they funding? 

Project ideas for these micro-grants (which are $250-$500) could be anything. They can be for either individuals or dojos and the only criteria is that they aim to “make the future of Aikido more inclusive.” They could be for a dojo that wants to offer diversity training for their membership and needs funds to hire a facilitator. It could cover the cost of putting instructors through sexual harassment prevention training. It could cover costs for an individual POC who has never had the opportunity to attend a summer camp.  There are endless possibilities of what this grant could fund. You can check out the online application on the website.

How do you think Aikido organizations are doing, in general, to foster diversity and inclusion? Do you think there is a need to have policies or guidelines in place at an organizational and / or a dojo level to support or address these things?

When we are looking at Aikido as being inclusive and non-discriminatory, in the best world, you have someone running a dojo or running an organization who is brilliant, ethical, and benevolent, without cultural bias–but that’s not always the case. So building in structures that are designed to prevent abuses of power and support diversity, is really important. It’s a reason why I think a nonprofit structure for a dojo or Aikido organization makes a lot of sense. 

Instead of a dojo-cho just assuming the ethical standards of leadership, you build in a system where it can’t just be one person on top making all the decisions, but there are checks and balances between a chief instructor and a board of directors.

In the last decade or so, corporations in America have had to completely revise their sexual harassment policies and their non-discrimination policies, purely from a risk management perspective. Any dojo or organization that does not have those things in place today, is operating at a risk because it’s behavior that may have been tolerated in the past, but no longer will be.

For those interested in learning more or getting guidelines and policies in place, do you have any pointers?

Yes! There is a new MeToo Aikido website created by Neilu Naini that has some useful resources, links to online trainings, as well as a self-assessment checklist that dojo can go through to determine if they have proper procedures in place regarding harassment issues.  It’s not meant to be a shaming tool. It’s really meant to be a self-analysis tool. And there is a basic pledge for both individuals and dojos to sign that is a good way to affirm your commitment to the belief that all people have the right to practice Aikido free of abuse.

But we also need to go deeper into the culture of organizations. We can put stuff on paper, and have all the anti-harassment stuff in place, but if people don’t realize that they are unconsciously participating in a culture that is discriminatory, there isn’t actually going to be real change. 

Thank you for your work in this area and for sharing your thoughts with the Aikido community.