Consensus Reached In Plains Aborigines’ Name Rectification Legislation: Recognition Of Aborigine Identity First, And Then Legal Rights

政務委員林萬億(左二)表示,會盡力加速平埔族群相關修法通過,並分頭處理語言、土地等問題。(攝影/陳逸凡)

Taiwan Church News
3403 Edition
15 – 21 May, 2017
Headline News

Consensus Reached In Plains Aborigines’ Name Rectification Legislation: Recognition Of Aborigine Identity First, And Then Legal Rights

Reported by Chen Yi-fan

After President Tsai Ing-wen’s pledge to restore legal rights of Taiwan’s plains aboriginal peoples on August 1st 2016, the Executive Yuan decided to respond with stipulating an extra article recognizing plains aborigines’ identities in current Status Act For Indigenous Peoples.

Hosted by Mr Lin Wang-Yi, minister-at-large of the Executive Yuan, and Mr Icyang Parod, minister of Council of Indigenous Peoples(CIP), the first meeting of a series of nation-wide council on the system of legal rights for plains aboriginal peoples was held at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology on May 12th. About 300 plains aboriginal peoples, mainly Siraya aborigines from Chou Zeng, Nan Cie, Kong Ah Nah and etc, fervently came to attend the meeting and almost exploded the council hall.

During the briefing of the government’s draft proposal, CIP officials pointed out there were two major points in this draft bill: first, threshold of recognizing the identity of plains aborigine would be radically lowered down, for example, no matter how many generations her/his plains ancestors were passed by, she or he could still be recognized as plains aborigines if one of their ancestors could be shown as “civilized” aborigines by the household register transcripts under the Japanese ruling period from 1895 – 1945; second, each plain aborigines’ legal rights and the related implementation procedures will be tailor-made and bottom-up according to actual demands and concrete conditions of each plains aboriginal people.

Leaders of Siraya plains aborigines, for example, Rev Hwang Mau-chuang of Nan-Cie Presbyterian Church and Elder Wan Cheng-hsiung of Kao-Bih Presbyterian Church, agreed to stand by CIP’s draft bill to receive the identity of plains aborigines first and then to write down concrete legal rights later. But, Mr Duone Hong-kun, a Sirayan cultural worker at Kabuasua village, and Mrs Wan Hsu-chuen, president of Siraya Cultural Association, conservatively expressed their partial approval of CIP draft bill and reminded the audience that all those good-will offers promised by the government should be written down with black ink on the white paper, otherwise nothing could be assured!

In the end of meeting, Mr Lin Wang-Yi concluded:”The consensus reached here is absolutely not a random
guarantee, but a solid commitment we will carry out step by step. The energies and efforts that all of you have contributed will never be a waste in time!” Before June 17, four other similar council meetings will be held in central Taiwan, Kaohsiung & Pingtung, Hualien & Taitung and norther Taiwan.

Translated by Peter Wolfe

廣告/手到心至抄寫本-箴言

我有話要說