2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai sa ys =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80_=98_pseudo_Hakka=E2=80=99_label_is__=E2=80=98unaccept?= =?UTF-8?Q?able=E2=80_=99_?=(fwd link)

Huang,Chun huangc20 at UFL.EDU
Fri Nov 18 10:02:44 UTC 2011


  

Thank you for your kind words, Uncle Rolland :) I FEEL them
strongly. 

oh but I have to point out that it was Phil who shared the
news in this thread. So thanks Phil! 

And, Rolland, I'll forward your
message to my folks in Taiwan, who are actually preparing for a large
rally/demonstration - for official recognition and for land rights -
that will take place in Taipei City tomorrow (Nov 19). Your words will
definitely cheer up their spirit, especially an older man, whom I also
call uncle. This uncle, Uncle Talavan, left the village yesterday early
morning for Taipei (about 7 hours of traveling time), discreetly,
without alerting anybody except for his own children. He has been
sitting-protesting in front of the Council for Indigenous Peoples
(controlled by govt) since he reached there, and it's been 24 hours...
still 24 more hours to go until the scheduled time for group protest. He
wasn't trying to be heroic. If he was, he would be loud and the media
would have already noticed him. But no, no media coverage (I got the
news only from his daughter). He is just sitting there, quietly, with
dignity. But hey he could probably use some extra strength. So I'll
translate your message and ask someone to bring it to him :) 

again,
thank you so much for writing!!! 

Jimmy 

On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:55:44
-0500, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: 

> Thanks Jimmy for this article. I had
not seen it. I have now forwarded it to all my contacts many of whom are
so called 'First Nations' by the colonizers. Collectively, we are by (I
don't mind it too much...they had to give us an administrative
collective) UN definitions 'indigenous peoples' and each one of us has
our own language or dialect and name for ourselves in our own language
regardless of how we are designated by politics or anthropologists.
Hundreds of our languages have become extinct and all our cultures have
been transgressed by colonizers. We are all struggling to survive but it
is extremely difficult when so many outside experts know how we should
do that. 
> 
> This article strikes my feelings as I am a member of the
'indigenous peoples' of the earth. I am a member of the potowatomi
peoples living in Canada. In reality, we are here as political refugees
from what is now the United States. From the Mississippi river west was
designated as 'Indian Territory' by the US government until gold was
discovered in the Black Hills and all the lands in that 'Indian
Territory' were opened for allotment to the 'settlers' and miners. Our
people were one of the first contacts in that western flood of land
grabbers and so we had to be moved. The army came and at rifle point
negotiated a peaceful invitation for our withdrawal to Kansas and
Oklahoma. Thousands of our people died on that long and horrible
march...we remember the stories. Some refused to relocate and took
refuge at various places in out lands, resisted and even fought back.
The army came again, in force, and re-issued the invitation for us to
move out. Again, we refused. The army, in full force, attempted to
capture and relocate those of us(of course I wasn't there) who refused
to move. There were a large number of us and many of the Kickapoo had
joined us. Our numbers were too conspicuous and cumbersome and so we
divided ourselves. One group agreed to come up to Canada and the other
half agreed they would go to Mexico and the Kickapoo would go with them.
That is what we did and that is why our relatives are here in Canada.
However, in Canada, we fared not much better...we just didn't have the
army chasing us. 
> 
> Our people were a very large group and this was
Ojibway lands so we divided up and were taken in by many other Ojibway
communities. That is where we are and how we are to this day. Our
culture, language and relationships were as devastated here in Canada by
the same colonial systems systematically imprisoning our peoples and the
Ojibway into their residential school systems and under the same laws
that outlawed our language, ceremonies and human status. We have
survived...we are surviving. We may be only a message in a bottle at the
mercies of this huge ocean of global discontent and destruction of
indigenous peoples and the earth, but, we are here and we know it. 
> 
>
Now a narrative: Our people, potowatomi, translates loosely as 'fire
makers/keepers' because we carried the sacred fire of the 'council of
the three fires'. We had responsibility for that fire for the
council...for keeping and maintaining it. I was born into all that I am
speaking of and that is how I can speak of it. _'Breast Plate and
Buckskin' _history books might tell you differently but they are not
potowatomi. Our story is not theirs or anyone else's to tell. Anyhow, I
was raised knowing this. 
> 
> Some years ago, the potowatomi had a
gathering on some of the land we first occupied when we came to Canada
up along the east side of Georgian Bay. I knew of it but I was not able
to make it to that gathering. A very, very close friend and relative,
potowatomi also, knew how important our history is and how important to
me personally. He was able to go to the meeting. When I returned, he
came to visit me with a gift. It was a piece of charcoal about the size
of an acorn. He had mounted it on a piece of wood inside a square
plastic cover. When he gave it to me as a gift, he told me what it is.
At the gathering, the potowatomi who had moved to Mexico, unbeknown to
many of us who came to Canada, had taken the original fire with them to
Mexico. When they heard of our gathering in Canada, they sent up the
fire for out gathering. That small piece of charcoal 'is' everything I
am telling about. 
> 
> When our people were split up during that part
of our our history around the 1840s, the group to Mexico took the fire
with them and kept that fire, our fire, until this day...over 170 years.
That small, black, insignificant piece of charcoal is imbued with the
cosmological existence of our potowatomi people. That is who I am and
why I can (perhaps an assumption) understand many of the survival issues
of our indigenous peoples on a global scale. Our indigenous peoples,
globally, are related in so many ways but that is another story. A short
one...lol. I met Huang Chun, Jimmy on this list a few years ago. We
befriended each other and shared many online conversations with each
other. In his traditions and in mine, and there are common reasons for
it, Jimmy writes to me as 'uncle' and I refer to him as 'my nephew'.
That is an incredible honor and I do brag about it to my family. I could
tell more about how our connections were interfered with by Canadian and
American authorities but I think Jimmy lives under somewhat more
'hateful' conditions than I do here in the Americas and so it is much to
risky. All we ever did is to assist each other in sharing our cultures.
I paraphrase how Jimmy put it, ...why would such big organizations be
interested in a couple of insignificant little indigenous people like
us.... I couldn't shed any light on his statement since I don't
understand either but it appears to be happening on a global scale. So,
my nephew Jimmy' I am so glad we met...at least cybernetically...perhaps
one day in person. I guess, by the evidence, we are a part of a very
important and elite group of indigenous peoples globally...why else
would they not like us and give us such a difficult time in our
surviving.
> 
> -------
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
>
___________________________________________
> WAR DOES NOT DETERMINE WHO
IS RIGHT - ONLY WHO IS LEFT...
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
[1]] On Behalf Of Huang,Chun
> Sent: November-16-11 4:50 AM
> To:
ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ILAT] 2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai
says ' pseudo Hakka' label is 'unacceptable' (fwd link)
> 
> And Tsai
says that if she is elected the president, she would make a formal,
public apology to the indigenous peoples in Taiwan on behalf of the ROC
government.
> 
> We could only hope so.
> 
> The KMT party, which
founded ROC, and its candidate, Ma, who is the current president, have
not made such a promise.
> 
> Jimmy
> 
> On Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:36:57
-0700, Phillip E Cash Cash wrote:
>> Tue, Nov 15, 2011 - Page 3
>> 
>>
2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai says 'pseudo Hakka' label is 'unacceptable'
>> 
>>
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
>> Taiwan
>> 
>> Labeling her a "pseudo
Hakka" for her inability to speak Hakka
>> fluently is unacceptable,
since language proficiency should never be
>> judged as a "cardinal
sin," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
>> Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen
(蔡英文) said yesterday.
>> 
>> She said the Chinese Nationalist
Party's (KMT) "crude language
>> policies" of the past was the reason
her Hakka was not more fluent.
>> 
>> Access full article below:
>>
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/15/2003518359
[2]
> 
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Links:
------
[1]
mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
[2]
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/15/2003518359
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