Calling the past century “100 years of suffering for Aborigines,” activists yesterday issued a Declaration of Aboriginal Rights, while also urging the passage of laws that would facilitate and speed up Aboriginal autonomy.
“While the Republic of China [ROC] celebrates the centennial of its founding, that period was an era of painful suffering for us Aborigines,” Taiwan Aboriginal Society chairman Tibusungu ‘e Vayayana told a press conference at the legislature.
“At the beginning [of the 20th century], it was the colonization of Japan, and then it was the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] regime,” he added.
“Both regimes were colonial regimes to the Taiwanese Aborigines. Both of them imposed severe losses on the Aborigine community in terms of the knowledge and dissemination of our own languages, cultures, traditional domains and traditional lifestyles,” he said.
The destruction of traditional Aboriginal domains not only led to the suffering of Aborigines, but the suffering of all, he added.
“Over-development means that we are constantly threatened by natural disasters, such as mudslides, that turn everyone into a victim,” Vayayana said. “Actually, I wouldn’t call such disasters ‘natural’ at all, because they are the results of human activity and are thus ‘manmade disasters.’”
Former People First Party legislator Tsai Chung-han (蔡中涵) of the Amis tribe, said that, having reviewed the suffering of Aborigines over the past 100 years, “I’ve refused to take part in any -celebration of the ROC’s Centennial anniversary.”
He said the government continued to overlook the rights of Aborigines.
“Right now, we’re talking about improving Aboriginal rights and there are official tribal representatives from the Council of Indigenous Peoples in attendance,” Tsai said. “Well, they don’t have any actual power and I don’t know how it would actually help to share our opinions with them.”
The activists also publicized a Declaration of Aboriginal Rights, in which they urged the government to grant autonomy to Aborigines, protect their rights to land, water and other natural resources in traditional Aboriginal domains, and help to maintain Aboriginal languages, cultures, sacred sites, legends and lifestyles.
KMT Legislator Chien Tung-ming (簡東明) of the Paiwan tribe said that although the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民族基本法) was passed in 2005 to protect Aboriginal rights, “subordinate laws to the act have not been passed despite a deadline, making it difficult to do anything concrete to protect Aboriginal rights.”
The Aboriginal Basic Act provides only a framework, leaving details to be developed in subordinate laws, and stipulates that all subordinate laws must be passed within three years of the adoption of the Aboriginal Basic Act.
For example, it is impossible to protect Aborigines’ right to non-commercial hunting in their traditional domains — as stated in the Aboriginal Basic Act — because subordinate laws on traditional domains have not been adopted, and the boundaries of such domains have not been defined.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS