8 Years of Struggle: Indigenous Land Reform Under Tsai
Tsai Ing-wen was the first president to apologize to Indigenous people for the oppression they faced under the government. TaiwanPlus spoke with NCCU professor of ethnology Daya Kuan to learn more about Indigenous land rights policy under her administration.
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00:00 What was President Tsai's plan for indigenous reforms and was she able to accomplish those goals in her two terms as president?
00:06 So President Tsai gave an apology to indigenous people right in the beginning of her term.
00:14 But very quickly when they released the regulation for denigrating indigenous traditional territory,
00:21 it caused a lot of debate or discontent, especially for indigenous people.
00:28 Because the regulation saying that only public land can be denigrated as traditional territory.
00:36 They stopped their plan to support indigenous community to do the traditional territory and community mapping work.
00:47 But we also see some other progress from other government departments or sections.
00:54 For example, the Forestry Bureau actually started some co-management project with indigenous communities and they get some progress.
01:07 For example, for the hunting issues, they started an experimental project that authorized indigenous community to manage our own forestry resources,
01:22 including the animals.
01:25 President Tsai has indigenous Taiwan roots. Did this draw special attention to indigenous issues during her presidency?
01:33 Actually during the period she ran for the election, actually in some occasion she will say, "Oh yes, my grandmother is from Taiwan group."
01:46 She organized the committee under the president's office for the transitional justice and historical justice.
01:57 That was a good thing. She tried to hear the voice from indigenous people.
02:03 Also, President Tsai is a very conserved person, so she would like to have things going slowly under certain negotiation.
02:20 In that way, in past eight years, regarding to indigenous land issue, it just stopped.
02:28 The next president, Lai Ching-teh, takes office on May 20th. What can we expect in terms of indigenous reform during his presidency?
02:35 What I know is the policy for indigenous people from President Lai is also very conserved.
02:44 I don't see anything go beyond President Tsai Ing-wen.
02:47 I'm not sure what he will do regarding indigenous land issue. All I know is he also wants more social dialogue.
02:59 I'm expecting that we can have more social dialogue and have the mainstream society understand the importance of indigenous land rights.
03:14 right.
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