Indigenous

Behind the Zhiben Solar Farm Controversy

Yu Chen Chuang
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. ...
EnglishEnvironmentalFeaturedIndigenousJuly 2021RaceSocial Movements18 min read

Indigenous Protest Over Solar Farm in Early May Reflects Recurring Issues

Brian Hioe
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...
EnglishIndigenousMay 2021RaceSelf-DeterminationSocial Movements5 min read

Pingpu Groups Hold March to Call for Recognition

Brian Hioe
Pingpu groups held a rally last Tuesday to call on President Tsai Ing-wen to acknowledge their status as indigenous. Currently unacknowledged indigenous groups, such as Babuza, Ketagalan, Makatao, Pazeh, and Siraya were among those present at the demonstration to call for their official recognition, which was primarily organized by the Tainan Siraya Culture Association...
EnglishIndigenousOctober 2019RaceSocial Movements5 min read

Anger from Indigenous Activists After Protest Against Efforts to Protect Indigenous Territories

Brian Hioe
Over one thousand members of the Taiwan Association for the Rights of Non-Aboriginal Residents in Mountain Indigenous Townships protested against the Council of Indigenous Peoples’ efforts to protect indigenous traditional territories outside of the Executive Yuan and Council of Indigenous Peoples' yesterday. This has led to anger from indigenous activists...
EnglishIndigenousMay 2019RaceSocial Movements5 min read

Controversy About Indigenous and Gender Representation After NPP Party Congress

Brian Hioe
Controversy has broken out after the NPP’s first general meeting for members was held last Saturday in Xindian. Namely, criticisms of the party have arisen from indigenous members of the party and others after a proposal that the central committee of the NPP should have at least one indigenous member and that no gender should have less than one-third representation on the central committee was voted down...
EnglishIndigenousJanuary 2019RaceSocial Movements6 min read