Sioulin Township’s (秀林) Truku People’s Hunting Association yesterday awarded 294 hunter certificates to Aborigines of Hualien County, a first step toward self-managed hunting by local Aboriginal villages.
The event might bolster Aborigines’ appeal to the central government to allow more villages to participate in non-commercial hunting, the association said.
After a 2017 project run by the Forestry Bureau’s Hualien Forest District Office helped hunting groups from Tongmen Village (銅門), the groups — from nine townships and 16 villages in Sioulin Township — banded together to form the association.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
Yesterday, after overseeing a traditional ceremony of village representatives firing their rifles into the air and lighting smoke bombs, Wenlan Village (文蘭) elder Lowsi Rakaw and association director-general Teyra Yudaw handed out the certificates.
The association follows traditional hunting rules, passes on hunting skills and experience to the next generation, and works with academics and government officials on the sustainability of the natural environment, Yudaw said.
The association’s certificate entails a 20-hour course on topics such as hunting culture, hunter safety, and laws governing hunting and outdoor tracking.
“Our hunters will monitor animal species and regularly patrol the mountains, and we hope to expand our operations into Taroko National Park,” Yudaw said.
Sioulin Township said that it would work with a team led by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology professor Pei Jai-chyi (裴家騏) to set up infrared monitoring and a notation system to record the game hunted by the groups.
District office head Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬) said that it would continue to work with the association, and ensure that the nation’s forests and mountains are conserved.
The self-discipline of the Tongmen Village hunting bands has been a key factor in the project’s success and its eventual adoption across Sioulin Township, said National Dong Hwa University environmental studies professor Tai Hsing-sheng (戴興盛), who has been involved in the project for many years.
The event was important for the association and the Truku community, Sioulin Township Mayor Wang Mei-kuei (王玫瑰) said, adding that the township aimed to have Aborigines assist in managing the land.
The Truku community continues to live by their ancestors’ teaching that the “land is our blood, and the mountains and woods our home,” Yudaw said. “We hope to apply conservation methods based on traditional teachings to Taroko National Park and show that the Truku community is once again truly autonomous.”
Yudaw called on the government to honor its pledge of transitional justice for Aborigines and to approve the association’s request that they be allowed to conduct non-commercial hunting on national park land.
“Our ancestors have all hailed from the local mountains and the area is full of materials needed to pass on our cultural,” Yudaw said, lamenting that government policy and environmental protection groups are blocking the Truku community from practicing their culture on traditional land.
“Instead of calling the Taroko National Park a ‘world-renowned scenic hotspot,’ it should instead be known as a large cultural graveyard,” he said.
The knowledge and memories of the Truku community are ebbing away as elders age, Yudaw said, adding that the culture must be passed down so that the community can live how its ancestors lived and believe in Gaya, the teachings and laws set down by the ancestors.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS