Retaining tribal names for people and places is the key to preserving Aboriginal cultures and bringing about Aboriginal autonomy, said panelists attending a conference on Aboriginal affairs yesterday.
The conference, hosted by the Council of Indigenous Peoples and the Aboriginal New Youth Association of Cultural Exchange, discussed recovering personal and place names.
"They are not merely name changes ... ultimately, it's about the restoration of a lifestyle, an entire set of interpersonal relationships and even the rebirth of a people," said Tibusungu e Vayayana, a geography professor at National Taiwan Normal University and a Tsou tribesman from the Alishan (
The Tsou culture is based on a clan system in which each clan has its own political, religious and hunting units, he said.
The clan system also dictates how two people would interact with each other, he said.
But when the Tsou, like other Aboriginal communities, were forced to adopt Japanese and then Chinese names, cultural and social systems came under serious threat, he said.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Lin Shu-ya (
She related an incident that took place near Smangus (
Two years ago, three young men from the village followed up on a decision made during a community meeting to remove part of a fallen tree on a roadside.
They were then arrested and indicted, with the Forestry Bureau accusing them of "stealing property from state-owned forests," Lin said.
The men were sentenced to six months in prison plus fines earlier this month.
"The location of the fallen tree is defined by the bureau as within forest area 81 under the bureau's Dasi regional office," Lin said.
However, for the people of Smangus, the area belonged to an ancient village where they used to live and was still under the jurisdiction of Smangus according to traditional Atayal law, she said.
"The Forestry Bureau was able to tell its version of the story in court because the state set up the rules and had the power to name; the situation may be reversed if Smangus' residents can get back the power of naming," Lin said.
Once Aborigines have "the right to tell their version of the story, they may as well tell people how they managed these places" during the past hundreds and even thousands of years, she said.
That process is underway.
Haisul Palalavi, a Bunun cultural activist, spoke of a plan by a southern Aboriginal township to revert to a name more closely connected to its local identity.
Activists in Sanmin Township (
In 1957 the majority-Bunun township was renamed after the Sanmin Zhuyi (Three Principles of the People), the political ideology of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) co-founder Sun Yat-sen (
"But the name has no connection to local history and culture whatsoever," Palalavi said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS