Indigenous Movement and Its Prospects Towards Indigenous Nation-Building | SOAS University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 11/03/2019

Indigenous Movement and Its Prospects Towards Indigenous Nation-Building is a lecture given by Dr. Awi Mona (Chih-Wei Tsai) at the Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS University of London on 9 July 2018. Find out more at http://bit.ly/2VStZLt
Indigenous self-government has always been an important channel to reconstruct the special relationship between indigenous peoples and the nation-state. Now is the time that Taiwan government flaunt to restore indigenous historical and transitional justices. It truly is a facing issue to implement the indigenous right to self-government. Apart from unsuccessful specialized legislation, Indigenous Peoples Basic Act, on the other hand, reflects the principles of self-governance and participatory informed consent mechanism, which conceive the multi-models of indigenous self-government. Nevertheless, an important revision had been added to the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act, i.e. buluo can be a public juristic person with ratification by the central authority. This research dwells upon avoiding the national legal framework which may put indigenous self-government in a structure of uniformity and homogenization, and furtherance to terminate the sui generis nature of indigenous rights.

By aforementioned, this research aims to propose a multi-dimensional legal subjectivity for indigenous self-government. The main focus starts with the reconstruction of indigenous legal traditions. Next, to create a new type of juristic person outside the State’s general legal conceptualizations. Last but not the least, to examine the proposing model through the management of indigenous culture expressions and the preservation of indigenous cultural heritages.

Speaker Bio
Dr. Awi Mona (Chih-Wei Tsai)

Associate Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies, National Dong Hwa University
Director, Research Center for Indigenous Education, National Academy for Educational Research
Convener, Presidential Office Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee, Subcommittee on Land Claims
Dr. Awi Mona (Chih-Wei Tsai) is the first indigenous person in the country obtained a Doctorate degree in Law. His research is primarily in the areas of Indigenous law, Aboriginal Title law, and cultural law. Over the past decade since his return from Seattle, he has continuously worked extensive collaborative on indigenous rights movements with local communities in Taiwan, as well as providing legal and policy advice on a wide variety of Indigenous law and related issues. Awi is a member of the Seediq Nation.