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立 政 治 大 學
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until 1987. Following the end of Martial Law and the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in 1988, native Taiwanese Lee Teng-hui became President. He implemented numerous reforms that facilitated a shift from one-party dictatorship to democracy and in 1996 was re-elected President in Taiwan's first direct presidential election. The DPP was officially founded in 1986, quickly becoming the main opposition party as the practice of democracy developed in Taiwan. Taiwan experienced its first democratic transition of power in 2000 when DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian was elected President,
allowing the DPP to gain control of the executive branch of government. The indigenous policies implemented by the DPP in the period 2000 to 2008 represent a new approach from the previous policies of the KMT. The KMT reclaimed control of the executive again in 2008 with the election of Ma Ying-jeou as President.
The indigenous peoples whose rights are the subject of this study are the Austronesian speaking peoples of Taiwan and Orchid Island. They are the peoples officially called yuanzhuminzu (indigenous peoples) by the government of Taiwan. There are 430,000 people officially recognised as indigenous in Taiwan, making up 1.9 % of the
population (Council of Indigenous Peoples, 2007).
Historically, Taiwan's indigenous peoples were categorised according to a “nine tribes” model which was based on studies by Japanese ethnographers. However, there are now 14 officially recognised ethno-linguistic groups. There is also a movement for the Pingpu (plains) peoples to recover and reclaim their identity. The number of groups and criteria for being identified as indigenous in Taiwan may change further in the future. Issues related to indigenous identity in Taiwan and definitions of
indigenous peoples will be further discussed in Chapter Two.
More specifically this thesis focuses on the Atayal people, an ethno-linguistic group that live in the mountainous areas of northern Taiwan. It includes a case study of the Atayal community of Smangus. More details about the Atayal and Smangus are provided in Chapter Three and Chapter Four of this thesis.
1.3 Methods
A case study of the Smangus Beech Tree Incident forms the core part of the thesis. It is centred around the incident involving a wind fallen beech tree occurred in
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國立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
September and October 2005 and the subsequent legal case which ended with a not guilty verdict from the High Court in February 2010. It also looks at Smangus as a community in the broader context of Atayal culture and contemporary society in Taiwan. Research on the case includes a literature review, key informant interviews, review of related Internet websites and field observations.
The Smangus case is not the only case where indigenous rights have been contested in Taiwan's courts. However, there are a number of reasons why Smangus was chosen for the case study in this thesis. The Smangus case occurred in the same year that the IPBL was passed meaning that is one of the first substantial tests of the IPBL in Taiwan's courts. The case attracted attention and support from academics and NGOs so it was well observed and also reported in the media.
The Smangus community also has some special characteristics. It is a remote village where the people maintain a strong sense of self reliance and independence. The people of the village seek to actively pass on their language and cultural traditions to future generations. At the same time the village has been open to outside influences and has adopted a system of cooperative management and ecotourism as the economic base of the village. There has also been ongoing contact with academics, particularly in a mapping project to define the community's traditional territory. Hence, there is documentation and expert witnesses to support Smangus's claims of traditional territory (Lin Yih-ren, interview).
The experience of Smangus is different from other indigenous communities in Taiwan.
A limitation of the case study method is that while it can make descriptive inferences to other cases it can't establish causal relationships (Gerring, 2004). It may not be possible for every indigenous community to replicate the model of Smangus.
However, they can certainly learn important lessons from it and adopt these to their own unique circumstances.
To obtain a deeper understanding of the Smangus case I have conducted interviews with a number of people who have been involved in or observed the development of the case. I have also interviewed several people in government who play key roles in the formulation of Taiwan's indigenous policies to learn more about the important issues in the broader field of indigenous rights.
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國立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
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Most interviews were recorded with a digital audio recorder and several of the interviews were video recorded. In addition to the recording some basic notes were made at the time of the interviews with more detailed notes or transcriptions later made from the recordings. A few of the interviews were recorded by hand written notes only. For the people of Smangus Mandarin is a second language. They may not be able to fully explain concepts related to the gaga (Atayal traditional law) and traditional territory in that language. Hence my ability to understand some of these concepts through interviews is somewhat limited.
These interviews form the basis of a qualitative study. The case study is focused on events that have happened from September 2005 to the present so it is expected that interviewees can reliably provide detailed and accurate accounts of these events. Some interviewees also supplied additional materials at the time of the interview and these were kept and filed.
I have made three trips to Smangus to conduct interviews and learn about the local conditions. The first two trips were for one day only in December 2007 and April 2008. During these visits there was only time to conduct interviews and have a brief tour of the village area. In August 2009 I spent two days in the village. The longer visit enabled me to see a wider variety of things in the village and gain a better understanding of how everything works. I also had time to hike to the grove of old trees. I have also been able to learn more about the broader situation of indigenous rights in Taiwan by attending several conferences and protests.
There are large bodies of literature related to the international issue of indigenous rights and the ethnology of the peoples of Taiwan. In the area of contemporary indigenous rights in Taiwan the availability of published materials in English is more limited, but cover all the major events of the past few decades. The Smangus
community blog also provides an important resource for study. Because of my limited ability to read Chinese only a few documents written in Chinese have been used as references.
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國立 政 治 大 學