On the evening of Oct. 9, I attended a concert put on by Aborigines from various tribes and from all over Taiwan. The title of the concert was “Aboriginal millennium — Taiwan Bale” — a reference to the recently released film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale — and it took as its theme the blood and tears shed by Taiwan’s Aborigines over the centuries.
At the concert, I encountered a dozen organizations from many tribes. There were Amis people who are struggling to maintain their traditions; Atayal people resisting the threat of more dams being built on their land; Paiwan people protesting against the dumping of nuclear waste on their territory; Tsou people denouncing the execution of their fellow tribespeople following the 228 Incident and the use of their land for build-operate-transfer construction projects; Bunun people voicing their discontent with housing built for them after their villages were destroyed by typhoon floods — housing that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said reminded him of France’s Provence region; Sediq people who reject the bogus “autonomy” the government wants them to accept; and representatives of the Pingpu, or lowland, Aborigines whose culture has been nearly wiped out by government policy.
While a concert is a gentle form of expression, these Aborigines stand firm on their demands. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) arrived in Taiwan just 62 years ago, yet it absurdly expects the people it colonized to join in its celebrations of 100 years of the Republic of China (ROC). The government should show more modesty and face up to the fact that Taiwan’s Aborigines have been here for at least 1,000 years. It should take seriously the fact that Taiwanese Aborigines have continued to lose their traditional lands throughout the 62 years the KMT has been here.
In the film Seediq Bale, the Aboriginal concept of traditional lands is translated as “hunting grounds,” but that is only one aspect of what it really means. Land is the medium through which culture is passed from one generation to the next. When people’s land rights are lost, their autonomy is also lost.
The sad thing is that the government has stuck to its habit of taking advantage of the Aborigines. By using administrative resources to celebrate the ROC centenary, the government continues to weaken Aborigines’ identity. It has used cultural performances to skew the public’s understanding of what it means to preserve Aboriginal culture.
Everyone remembers the paternalistic and superior attitude Ma displayed when he told Aborigines: “I see you as people.” It came as no surprise, then, that he forgot that Aborigines exist at all when he spoke at official centennial celebrations. When he proclaimed in his address, “The Republic of China is our nation and Taiwan is our home,” he repeated it in three Han Chinese languages — Mandarin, Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Hakka — but not in any Aboriginal tongue. His colonial attitude is plain for all to see.
The point of the concert was to remind people that Aborigines have been in Taiwan for a very long time, having arrived long before China’s Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which had nothing to do with Taiwan. The Sediq word bale means “true” or “real.” Perhaps it is time for everyone to reflect upon what Taiwan really is and what it means to truly love Taiwan.
The concert was a kind of musical warfare, expressing Aborigines’ unerring determination to defend their homeland. Similarly, Taiwan is threatened by more than 1,000 Chinese missiles. China restricts Taiwan’s international space. It lures the Taiwanese with supposed benefits while actually undermining its national economy. Its wild ambition, in the end, is to swallow up Taiwan entirely. If Taiwan really wants to protect its national sovereignty, it must learn from the Aborigines’ steadfast defense of their lands. The first step would be to return Aborigines’ land and sovereignty. A country and people that are willing to do that would win the respect of the whole world.
Omi Wilang is secretary-general of the Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan.’
Translated by Julian Clegg
Source: Taipei Times - Editorials 2011/10/20
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