2021: A fruitful year for Indigenous communities in Taiwan · Global Voices
A screenshot from “Seqalu: Formosa 1867″ via PTS’ Youtube channel. Actor: <PERSON>
Despite the ongoing global hardships this year, 2021 was a uniquely fruitful year for Indigenous peoples in Taiwan. Indigenous community members won Olympic medals, received prestigious musical awards, and explored their history through a major TV drama.
Indigenous peoples in present-day Taiwan are descended from the Austronesian peoples and have been living in the Taiwan archipelago for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century onward, Indigenous peoples in this region were faced with an onslaught of military conflicts as newcomers, including Dutch and Japanese colonizers, invaded their land. After the Kuomintang (KMT) settled in Taiwan in 1949, they faced forced cultural assimilation and 40-years of oppression under martial law. Due to this history, Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples have been deprived of employment and educational opportunities and their cultures and languages are severely endangered.
In recent years, particularly after President <PERSON> issued a formal apology over past injustices, there has been a greater awareness of the plight of Indigenous peoples, and efforts to reverse the trend by saving the Indigenous languages and mainstreaming their cultures and history.
All these efforts have finally begun to bring the attention and recognition these groups deserve.
The Tokyo Olympics
#Taiwan‘s <PERSON> has won a gold medal in the women's 59kg weightlifting competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Photo: <PERSON>/AFP. 871
pic.twitter.com/QkXQSNfc2N
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) July 27, 2021
This year, among the 68 Taiwanese athletes in the Tokyo Olympics, 13 are from indigenous communities. <PERSON>, whose Amis‘ name is <PERSON>, broke three Olympic records and won the Olympic Weightlifting Women’s 59kg champion.
<PERSON>, a Paiwan, took the silver medal in the men's 60-kilogram judo final. <PERSON>'s Paiwan name is <PERSON>.
🇹🇼 "<PERSON>, of Paiwan Indigenous background, won the first Olympics judo medal for Taiwan at the Tokyo Olympics this year, which earned him the nickname 'Judo male god'."
Via @Focus_Taiwan https://t.co/Pux4ZkQuIs
— Anthony DIAO (@anthony_diao) November 21, 2021
Music awards
Taiwan's indigenous peoples have also managed to preserve their music through the cultural ceremonies of their tribes, despite the history of oppression and colonization in the region.
While many indigenous singers, such as diva <PERSON> (張惠妹) and <PERSON> (張震嶽), have built their careers by singing popular Mandarin songs, many have insisted on writing indigenous songs and music. And quite often, these indigenous singers are more willing to speak out on cultural and environmental issues.
Earlier this year, when Puyumaian singer <PERSON> received the Best Indigenous Language Singer and Album of the Golden Melody Awards, he raised concerns over the construction of a solar farm near his tribe:
我的部落，知本部落，現在正面臨土地的議題，希望大家可以關心；希望土地的正義，環境的正義，可以站在我的部落跟台灣每個角落，也希望大家能支持還沒被正名的西岸原住民族，能回到自己的土地。
My tribe, the Jhihben tribe, is facing an environmental problem, and I hope you can spare some time to look into it. I hope we will have land justice and environmental justice for my tribe and for every corner in Taiwan.
The solar farm construction site is located in a wetland area in Taitung where the ancestors of Katratripulr tribe lived. In addition to environmental concerns, there is also controversy about the ongoing dispossession of indigenous land in the name of development.
<PERSON> parents are <PERSON> and <PERSON>. She is a singer and a land-justice activist. 341