While the government was staging a series of events to celebrate the Republic of China’s (ROC) centennial, dozens of Aborigines staged a demonstration in front of the Presidential Office early yesterday morning in which they accused the ROC government of repression and exploitation of the nation’s Aborigines.
Early in the morning yesterday, dozens of Aborigines — mostly Atayals from New Taipei City (新北市), Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan Counties as well as from Greater Taichung — gathered at Liberty Square in Taipei not long after a New Year’s flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office ended and the crowd was walking away from Ketagalan Boulevard.
At 8am, they walked onto Ketagalan Boulevard and staged a “sun-shooting” skit there.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Tribal elders handed traditional Atayal bows and arrows — all made of bamboo — to younger members of the tribe, and one after another, they shot the “sun” on the ROC flag.
“We Atayals are here to condemn the invasion and exploitation of traditional Aboriginal domains,” one of the demonstrators, Sangas Yumin, told reporters at the scene. “From the Japanese colonial government to the ROC colonial government, we Aborigines have lost not only lands, but also dignity.”
“As the ROC celebrates its 100th anniversary, we are here to recount our sufferings over the past 100 years,” he added.
Sangas said that, in the past century, Aborigines were forced to leave their native lands and traditional hunting grounds and give up their rights to use and manage natural resources in their traditional domains, and their traditional ways of life were destroyed.
Former deputy minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples Atung Yupas, a tribal leader, said that the “sun-shooting” skit comes from an ancient Atayal story.
Legend has it that, once upon a time, there were two suns in the sky, which caused much suffering for the Atayals, and the people were finally saved when ancient Atayal warriors shot down one of the suns, Atung said.
“The ROC government is the evil sun of modern times for Aborigines and we must fight against it — we must fight against it until the day we walk onto the Bridge of Rainbows,” he said.
The Atayals believe that a Bridge of Rainbows connects their world to the world of their -ancestral spirits, and only those who live as a warrior can walk along the Bridge of Rainbows after death to the world of their ancestral spirits.
Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan secretary-general Omi Wilang, agreed, and said that if the Aborigines do not protest, the land will protest.
“Massive mudslides devastating the country is the protest by the land,” he said.
At the end of the demonstration, those who shot the sun handed the bows and arrows to young children, symbolizing that the task would be passed down to the next generation if it could not be completed by this generation.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS