By June Tsai
From disaster prevention and relief to political participation, from industrial development to cultural sustainability, from community empowerment to international connections—issues concerning Taiwan’s indigenous peoples today are no less complicated than those that involve a de jure state.
For Sun Ta-chuan, minister of the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples, a viable system is crucial to dealing with problems confronting his peoples, in view of their relatively disadvantaged status vis-a-vis Taiwan’s Han Chinese population, who dominate politics and policymaking.
Sun, known as Paelabang danapan in his ethnic Puyuma language, took charge of aboriginal issues one month after the deadliest typhoon to strike Taiwan in 50 years.
Statistics show that Typhoon Morakot swept across a region in which 80 percent of the villages are aboriginal communities. Upon becoming minister in September 2009, Sun’s priority was disaster relief and reconstruction for the villagers who lost their homes and crops to the landslides brought on by the storm’s relentless rainfall.
Sun accepted the task with a view to both the past and the future. Ten years earlier, as CIP deputy minister, the responsibility of helping rebuild the lives of the aboriginal peoples in the aftermath of the 7.3-magnitude earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999 had fallen to him, too.
The change of power in the central government in 2000, however, saw him leave the position. “I feel obligated to take on the job again this time, because experience has shown how post-disaster reconstruction work will be manipulated to focus on infrastructure rather than on culture, and that would be the worst thing that could happen now to the indigenous peoples,” Sun said April 9.
Sun pointed out that the government has earmarked a total of NT$7.5 billion (US$238 million) for a three-year post-typhoon reconstruction program. “Without institutional monitoring, the money could easily have been turned into pork barrel spending,” he said. “As we know from the past, such misuse can tear a tribal community apart from within.”
As a link between indigenous groups and Han Chinese society, Sun said, one of his most important tasks was to make policymakers and government administrators recognize the importance of enlisting aboriginal participation in every step of reconstruction.
“Luckily, officials involved fully understood the gist of the special post-typhoon reconstruction act, which is respect for the decisions of the indigenous communities,” Sun said. They have kept this spirit in mind as they work on relocation, schooling and employment plans, he added.
“There have been many discussions, with compromises and concessions from both sides, and I think this is a great learning opportunity for the ROC government.”
Sun, a Belgium-educated aboriginal cultural activist, takes a historical point of view. “Under Japanese colonial rule [1895-1945], the aboriginal peoples were relocated in an arbitrary way. Later, decades of economy-driven development of the country under the ROC government forced aborigines to abandon their different lifestyles. This has disadvantaged them in the modern society.”
“Our peoples gradually became dependent on help from the outside and from the government, further eclipsing their self-confidence and making them susceptible to negative influences,” he lamented. Yet, “the post-disaster reconstruction work is an opportunity to reverse the relationship.”
Rebuilding disaster-affected regions has highlighted the issues plaguing the indigenous peoples in recent history, including how to develop sustainable livelihoods, safeguard their cultures and social systems from disintegration, and preserve ecological balance.
For Sun, “the enactment of a law providing self-government for the indigenous peoples would offer an answer to how they can successfully deal with these issues.”
A bill granting self-governance has been in the works for many years, and Sun has put it at the top of his policy priorities.
“Advocacy of self-government has been at the center of aboriginal rights movements since the 1980s.” Sun stressed that it has grown even more urgent after the typhoon, in view of the large number of indigenous communities affected by the disaster.
Sun experienced a letdown in January when the government adopted an amendment to the Local Government Act merging several cities and counties, which tribal leaders and local rights activists said could further marginalize ethnic minorities.
Moreover, ingrained interests in current administrative demarcations make it difficult for tribes to connect. “The Bunun villages, for example, are scattered throughout Nantou and across the Central Mountain Range in Hualien and Taitung counties, along their ancestors’ route of migration.”
“With this situation in mind, we propose to institute aboriginal self-governments that allow an overlapping of jurisdictions with existing local governments, in the spirit of co-rule,” Sun said. The council is negotiating the details of self-rule with other agencies such as the Forestry Bureau under the Council of Agriculture and national parks, he added.
“The best result would be for the aborigines to be charged with management of national park land,” Sun said with a chuckle, aware of the current unlikelihood of this eventuality.
Sun said the institutionalized effort toward self-government would be able to accommodate existing attempts at self-rule by many ethnic groups. The Saisiyat people, for example, have created their own ethnic council. “A legal foundation for self-government will help keep electioneering at bay and build solidarity within communities,” he said.
On the international front, Sun harbors a great vision regarding the potential contributions of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. He recently revisited Palau, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and the Solomon Islands, where he had previously conducted research, as part of the diplomatic delegation accompanying President Ma Ying-jeou’s state visit to ROC South Pacific allies.
“Linguistic and archaeological research shows that the island’s indigenous groups are inextricably connected with other Austronesian peoples in South Pacific countries,” he said.
“This paves the way for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with peoples and governments of the region,” Sun said. But for the majority population of Taiwan, usually regarded as falling within the Chinese cultural sphere, developing deep connections with other Austronesian peoples requires a more profound understanding of Taiwan’s own history as well as that of the regions surrounding it.
“Austronesian peoples played a significant role in the establishment of anthropology as a field of study and as an inspiration for modern Western art. In the future, they will play an equally significant role in issues pertaining to the oceans and climate.”
“Taiwanese people should also become more aware of the strategic importance of the island and its history as a cultural and commercial hub in the 16th and 17th centuries,” Sun said, citing Dutch and Spanish historical sources.
To promote Taiwan’s strategic status and communication with Pacific countries, the CIP is mulling active educational and cultural exchange programs. In June, an international forum on Austronesian studies will be held in Taiwan. Also, in collaboration with the Jesuit Society in Taiwan, National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica, a Pacific cultural research center is scheduled to be set up this year.
After all, culture is always foremost in the minister’s mind. “The people of Taiwan do not have confidence in, or even understanding of, their own culture, because they lack a historical perspective,” Sun asserted. “The way the indigenous peoples of the island and their cultures are treated is a litmus test for how people here value their history and culture.”
One good sign is the increasing number of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations on aboriginal literature in Taiwan, Sun pointed out. Indigenous people in the 1980s turned to writing in search of identity and self-assertion. In recent years, “many of our young writers have won major literary prizes.”
Their accomplishments have also drawn attention from foreign researchers and publishers. “The collected works of Thao writer Syaman Rapongan, for example, are being translated into Japanese,” Sun noted. Aboriginal artists are also making significant contributions in other forms of art, including popular music and performance arts such as dance and theater.
For Sun, aboriginal creativity grows from strong roots in the land, and the power of cultural energy is far greater than any government policy in keeping a people alive and well.
“All institutional efforts and official cultural events will be nullified if the people of a nation lose their creativity, culture and sense of history.”
This article is published in "Taiwan Today" April 16, 2010.
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