Taiwan’s indigenous peoples are facing a cultural crisis. There has been an exodus of young people from the villages to urban areas in search of work and study opportunities, which has made it difficult to pass on languages, traditions and history. Those that remain in their villages are often restricted from carrying out traditional activities such as hunting and fishing, due to their locations within national parks or protected areas, leading to further deterioration of their culture. Autonomy can serve to relieve or reduce the enormity of this crisis.
Autonomy is an essential legal protection for indigenous peoples as it is the granting of a partial independence to tribes from the influence of the central government. As the indigenous peoples are a minority in Taiwan, making up only about 2 percent of the population, majority decision-making in the context of Taiwan’s democracy is often not in their best interests.
The cornerstone of autonomy is allowing Taiwan’s indigenous peoples to maintain much of the control over the resources in their traditional territories by establishing autonomous areas, which will in turn revive their traditional ways of life. In addition, schools will be able to be set up in which part of the curriculum is focused on the language, arts, culture and traditions of the tribe, allowing the youth to establish a strong and lasting connection to their heritage.
A decade ago, the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples, the central government agency tasked with overseeing indigenous affairs, drafted the indigenous autonomy bill. It comprises 104 articles that detail how indigenous autonomous regions will be established. This will take place in two stages, a referendum followed by the election of leaders. Land rights, taxes, budgeting, social welfare, courts and the relationship between the central government and the autonomous regions are some of the other issues that are addressed.
In 2003, there was much optimism that indigenous autonomy would soon become a reality when then ROC Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced that the Cabinet passed a resolution on indigenous autonomous areas. This resolution included only 15 articles, and was a declaration that indigenous autonomy could move forward. However, it left it up to the CIP and tribes to work out the details.
Two years later, the CIP began an effort to map out traditional territories of the tribes to be used as guidelines in demarcating indigenous autonomous areas. That same year, the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act was passed, guaranteeing the right to autonomy.
However, from that time on, the indigenous autonomy bill languished in the Legislature. It was not until the 2008 presidential election that the issue was brought out into the open again, when then candidate Ma Ying-jeou promised to allow the “testing” of indigenous autonomy in the form of establishing an autonomous demonstration area.
Earlier this year, the Cabinet decided to review all that had been proposed on the issue under the previous Democratic Progressive Party administration to determine if revision was needed before the indigenous autonomy bill is further addressed in the Legislature. The Cabinet may soon be feeling some pressure to move this process forward, as on a recent Taiwan Indigenous Television talk show, aboriginal Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei threatened protests if no further progress was made by the end of this month.
For such protests to be effective, there needs to be broad support for autonomy among the indigenous peoples themselves. The CIP has in recent years held briefings to attempt to explain the contents of the indigenous autonomy bill. In many cases these were held in township administrative offices, rather than in the villages. This has led to information being poorly disseminated, leaving the people to be most affected in the dark as to what autonomy would mean to them. This situation must be quickly rectified if indigenous autonomy is to gain traction.
While autonomy is a guaranteed right of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, the timeline to achieve it is not. This issue has taken on a new urgency with the destruction wrought by Typhoon Morakot in August of last year. Many villages that were located high up in the mountains, and thus relatively isolated from modern influences, have been forced to relocate to much lower elevations. Those considered by the government to be in “unsafe” areas may also have to move.
Without implementation of autonomy to allow indigenous peoples to make decisions for their futures and the future of their lands, the already short timetable to reach the point when it will no longer be possible to preserve Taiwan’s indigenous culture will be significantly reduced.
—Cheryl Robbins is a freelance writer based in Taichung and founder of Tribe Asia Indigenous Arts. The views are the author’s and not necessarily those of “Taiwan Today.” Copyright © 2010 by Cheryl Robbins
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