CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION
1.4 METHODOLOGY
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Sovereignty is by no mean an uncontested concept even within current political theory: does it apply only to state? Or can it be applied to peoples pre-existing and independently-governed indigenous people who exercise their sovereignty along with modern state government?
These are the key questions are what this study poses. To answer these questions, this study probes into the cases of indigenous communities in the Nan’ao. The case study is based on interviews with key informant and focus group discussions that the authors held during their field visits between 2016 and 2017, as well as an analysis of published and unpublished documents. The case study illustrates the dynamics between and among the corporates and state, and examines how Atayal people in Nan’ao are affected by extractive activities.
1.4 METHODOLOGY
Deconstructing the situations of Atayal people in Nan’ao requires a rich
interdisciplinary methodology. It will involve situating a grassroots Atayal oral culture with distinctive ontology and epistemology grounded in critical theory, discourse analysis and qualitative methodology.
Participatory Action Research
Action research is as part of a “community of practice” or research concurrent with action. This thesis’ aim is through cooperation and collaboration to promote change and offer possible solution. The collaborative approach involves multiple stakeholders from different sectors and a mix of incentives embedded in different
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policy instruments. The approach require researcher to engage with locals to share knowledge as well as stand in front of the public to tell the stories, uncover struggles and convey the collective voice. The research is also the process by which groups of people work on real issues, carrying real responsibility in real conditions. The critical point of the action research is ‘intervening.’ Intervening take actions researcher to be involved the process of being proactive. Ghraham Smith describes this approach as
a necessary approach when faced with crisis conditions” (Smith, 1999). By making the documentary into the research, it connects the visual art to practice, bringing more real, intimate image to the public and local communities. The combination of
academic research and documentary as part of the action research achieves several goals. First, it successfully advances cultural crisis and environmental damage caused by the mining industry in the indigenous community. Second, it is a resource for building public understanding of issues and empathy among viewers who otherwise might not relate to the critical situations. Third, it builds community participation in issues that impact people’s lives. We are able to have the face-to-face information sharing, discussion, and action when we are working on the project. “Community engaged scholarship can thus be viewed as an anti-oppressive, anti-hierarchical research approach that shifts power relations away from an authoritative expert”
(Wiebe, 2015). Furthermore, it draws community attention to the toxic impact of the extractive activity. For me, the participatory approaches offer a convening point for communities to come together with each other, and with issue leaders, to build solution.
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Documentary Forum
Number of Audiences Location Date
New Taipei City
Government
Number of Audiences: Around 120
Post-Discussion on the Taipei premiere
Researcher on the stage shared the stories and the struggles of the local communities with the public.
New Taipei City
11/26th/ 2017
Hiking Notes Number of Audiences: Around 30 Taipei 12/19th 2017
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The research shows the documentary in various forum, striving to reach larger audiences. The research cooperates with the organization Hiking Notes, attempting to get the attention from the outdoor sport lovers.
Indigenous movement:
Indigenous Ketagalan Boulevard Protest
Number of Audiences: Around 40
Researcher delivered the speech about the mining issue.
Taipei 12/21st/ 2017
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Holding the sign No One is An Outsider with documentary director Ben Chang
Nan’ao Communities
Number of Audiences: Around 130
The Post-Discussion led by the local community members
Film Showing gathered numerous people together to discuss about the issues of mining.
Ilan, Nan’ao
12/30th/ 2017
Figure 1- The Documentary Forum for Participation, Dialogue and Community Engagement (Source: Data Collected by the Author)
In-depth Interviews
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In the thesis, the study conducts in-depth interviews by speaking with participants in a one-on-one setting. When initiating conversations with potential interviewees, the researcher presented personal credentials which included academic affiliations. Sometimes the study’s approaches the interview with a predetermined list of questions or topics for discussion but the study allows the conversation to evolve based on how the participant responds. “Interviewing is a powerful way of helping people to make explicit things that have hitherto been implicit to articulate their perceptions, feelings and understandings” (Arksey and Knight, 1999)
Figure 2- The Structure of Interviews
Unstructured Interviews:
When the study conducts the unstructured interview, participants feel they are taking part in a conversation or discussion rather than in a formal question. The Atayal people is the oral-based culture. They pass their memory through storytelling, singing and narrating. Therefore, conducting unstructured interview has the advantage
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to realize the perspectives of elders, hunters and women who are the integral part of the research. The story is not simply telling a story. These old and new stories contribute to a collective story in which every Atayal person has a place.
Linda Smith describes “Stories are ways of passing down the beliefs and values of a culture in the hope that the new generations will treasure them and pass the story down further. The story and the story teller both serve to connect the past with the future, one generation with the other, the land with the people and the people with story” (Smith, 1999). However, in order to have more complete picture about the story. The research applies conversational follow-up questions which is able to elicit greater details, especially regarding the policy-oriented questions since most of the first answers are not completed. The follow-up questions also expand the researcher’s understanding and the interviewee’s responses, and to seek clarification, reasons, and recommendations. The interview contains with questions about past, present, and future community perspectives in extractive activity in their traditional territory. Such approaches fit well with the oral traditions which are still a reality in day-today Atayal lives.
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(1) Researcher and hunters stayed together beside the fire, sharing the stories.
(2) Hunter share Atayal migration story to researcher.
Figure 3- Hunters share stories of ecology, and cultural wisdom with the researcher.
(Source: Data Collected by the Author)
Focused Incident:
The research will focus on a specific event, namely on the memories and history of the mining development. I will invite the respondents to tell stories of the
developmental history. Individual feedback and memories become focus of the focus incident. In addition, the research will record the testimony. It is the form through which the voice of a ‘witness’ is accorded space and protection.
Semi-structured Interview:
Semi-structured interviews were conducted using an interview guide comprised of an ordered list of topics and questions. The introduction and conclusion of each interview focused on policy of the extractive governance. The approach offers the broader view on the public policy. The community leaders included
democratic-‧
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elected politician, community- and trans-community-acknowledged leaders, and cultural educators. The leaders who were interviewed reflect both political and geographical diversity. In addition, the participants in the field research presented a diversity in their interactions with more than one cultural and sovereign governmental settings.
Participant Observant:
As a researcher and also a participant in the action, I will not just observe others but to gain first-hand experience in the setting. Observation, consist of the research taking descriptive notes of what is happening, and give an insight into the broader picture. The research framework require researcher to become a participant observer, which I am taking part in the situation in order to be involved and further understand the social struggles.
Focus Group:
In a focus group, the researcher engages a small group of participants in a conversation which is designed to generate data relevant to the research question.
Each focus group contains from 5 to 10 informants. Geographical knowledge of the traditional territory familiar to the experienced hunters in the focus groups repeatedly proved to be of great value. This research uses them in studies that examine the mining development and Atayal ontology. I want to generates interaction between members who are able to to get a more objective and macro view of the investigation, so as to add the breadth and depth of the information.
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In particular, the goal of the focus group is to remember the traditional naming system and the name of the Nan’ao River basin. In politics, the oral-base knowledge of Atayal people precludes authentic interpretations from the Atayal perspectives because it conflicts with the notion of modern state. Despite, the oral-knowledge has sustained Atayal belief systems for millenniums. However, naming project of Atayal people can be seen in struggles over the geographical names of some of the mountains and significant sites which were renamed randomly after colonial rule. The purpose of focus group is about retaining as much control over meanings as possible. By ‘naming the world’ people name their realities. For communities, there are realities which can only be found in the indigenous language; the concepts which are self-evident in the indigenous language can never be captured by another language. “Brazilian educators Paulo Freire whose saying, ‘name the word, name the world’, has been applied in the indigenous context to literally rename the landscape” (Smith, 1999). This is the concept tells us we should apply the original indigenous names.
(1) Inviting elders to explain and tell the Atayal naming story, system, and worldview
(2) Collecting the traditional name of the landscape
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Figure 4- Focus Group Held in the Process of Fieldwork (Source: Data Collected by the Author)
The qualitative research methods in all enhance my understanding of the cases, strengthening the framework. By researching through the analysis, it will appeal to evaluator a more compelling evidence base for project assessments and judgments.
Finally, the analytic approach must focus in the relationships among combinations of potential causal conditions within the case.
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