Indigenous Rights Movements in Taiwan Since 2008, SOAS, University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 11/07/2014

This special lecture by Professor Scott Simon titled "Indigenous Rights Movements in Taiwan Since 2008" was given at the Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS, University of London on 26 June 2014.

You can find out more about his event at http://bit.ly/1s3a8HR
You can find out more about the Centre of Taiwan Studies at http://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies

Abstract

Taiwan's indigenous social movement, active since the 1980s, has successfully lobbied to get indigenous rights included in the Republic of China Constitution, to create a cabinet level Council of Indigenous Peoples, and to pass the 2005 Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples. Taiwan's indigenous social activists have also become regular participants in United Nations indigenous events. Especially during the Chen Shui-bian presidency, foreign observers often suspected that the state instrumentalised "indigeneity" to claim a distinct identity from China. Events since 2008, however, demonstrate that the indigenous rights movement has maintained its own momentum and that the indigenous peoples have interests that cannot be reduced to issues of national identity or party politics. In fact, the indigenous people overwhelmingly support the KMT, and indigenous movements are involved in both "pro-unification" and "pro-independence" political networks.  Most indigenous social movement leaders, as well as ordinary indigenous people, hope that their movement can make progress in indigenous rights in ways that transcend the "blue" and "green" division between Han Taiwanese. This paper reflects upon the diversity of the indigenous movements and their mobilization strategies since Ma Ying-jeou was elected President of the ROC in 2008.

Speaker's Bio

Scott Simon Chairholder, Research Chair in Taiwan Studies, University of Ottawa, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Scott Simon specializes in the political anthropology of indigeneity and development in the Austronesian communities of Taiwan. He has done ethnographic research on this topic in both Hualien and Nantou counties of Taiwan since 2004. His new book has just been published by Presses de l'Université Laval.