A ruling by the Constitutional Court last week struck down provisions in the ROC constitution tying inheritance of Indigenous status to last names. However, there is likely to be a legal fight regarding this ruling among Indigenous groups...
The Indigenous occupation in the 228 Peace Memorial Park was dismantled by Taipei city authorities earlier today. The occupation had stood for over 1,800 days, close to five years...
Indigenous groups have been critical after a performance held by the Presidential Office as part of new year’s celebrations. In particular, the performance featured five performers that were supposedly dressed as Amis Indigenous, singing traditional songs. Nevertheless, Indigenous groups such as the Indigenous Youth Front have criticized this performance as an act of cultural appropriation, seeing as the clothing worn by the performers was not authentic to cultural customs, appeared to be cheaply rented costumes, and the songs performed fit Han stereotypes regarding Indigenous traditional music...
Protests regarding the Zhiben photovoltaic farm took place again late last month, with demonstrations against a government survey of the land that the farm is planned to be built on. These protests were not widely reported on, however, probably due to the fact that they took place in Taitung. Protests that take place outside of Taipei sometimes fail to receive coverage, with much of the media industry based in Taipei, and because Taiwan is small enough that protesters can frequently travel to Taipei to protest even for local issues. This has not been helped by COVID-related stories still continuing to take up a large part of the news cycle...
The Supreme Administrative Court ruled against extending the mining rights of Asia Cement’s mine on Truku Indigenous land on Thursday, dismissing an appeal filed by Asia Cement. The decision has been seen by some as a victory in the struggle against the mine. The Hualien city council had previously levied an ore tax of 70 NT per metric ton on the mine and rejected the extension. A lower court had previously also found Asia Cement’s actions to be in violation of the Indigenous Basic Law....
Holding out day and night in its restless position, the Miramar Resort has become a unique monument to both capitalist hubris and people power. Nearly a decade has passed since it became the site of one of Taiwan’s most vibrant recent social movements, eventually leading to a Supreme Court barring it from opening...
In 2016, when the Taitung County government announced they were stopping construction of a baseball court on the Zhiben wetlands—the traditional territory of the Katratripulr tribe of the Beinan Indigenous people—the tribe did not anticipate that they would split into factions during their next fight against a new construction project on their land. ...
Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen pardoned Indigenous hunter Tama Talum yesterday. This was Tsai’s first use of the presidential pardon during her two terms as president, as well as the seventh time that the pardon was used in ROC history...
Earlier this month, before the uptick in COVID-19 cases that has led to near-lockdown conditions in Taipei and New Taipei, 400 members of the Puyuma people protested outside of the Taitung county government building on May 7th against plans to develop a solar farm. In particular, protesters claim they were not adequately consulted before the county government went ahead with plans to build the solar farm, and that they were excluded from the decision-making process...
Indigenous activists and their supporters demonstrated outside of the Ministry of the Interior yesterday morning, calling for Indigenous name recognition...
