Indigenous traditional territories

Protests Continue Against Zhiben Solar Farm on Katratripulr Land in August and September

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...

Indigenous Protest Over Solar Farm in Early May Reflects Recurring Issues

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 Occupation Calling for Return of Traditional Territories Reaches 1,000th Day

The Tsai administration's lack of action on issues facing indigenous, unfortunately, continues to be an issue that goes without major discussion. This was highlighted yesterday, which was the 1,000th day of the indigenous occupation maintained by indigenous singer-songwriter Panai Kusui, her spouse and fellow singer-songwriter Nabu Husungan, and filmmaker Mayaw Biho regarding the Tsai administration’s failure to return traditional indigenous territories. However, the anniversary was marked by little fanfare...

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

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...