Siraya update
Chun Jimmy Huang
huangc20 at UFL.EDU
Thu Apr 23 05:22:17 UTC 2009
Friends and colleague on RNLD,
I don't know if this is related to the petition and the scheduled
street demonstration on May 2nd, but it may be, because all street
demonstration in Taiwan needs to be registered first.
So as I mentioned in the petition
(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Siraya-reclamation), Siraya is
but one of the 11 indigenous peoples in Taiwan that have not been
officially recognized by the central government (under KMT, or the
Chinese Nationalist Party). But the fact is that the local
government of Tainan County, which is the Siraya homeland, under
the localist Democratic Progressive Party, has since earlier this
year invited Siraya individuals to register as "aborigine."
Unfortunately, just yesterday (April 21st) the Center of
Indigenous Affairs sent an order to Tainan County government
saying that it is illegal to register Siraya. Besides, the central
government ordered to delete the "other" category on identity
registration (the dominant Han people are default and needs no
category; the 14 officially recognized peoples each has an ethnic
category; the 11 unrecognized peoples WERE all lumped into
"other"). So now even in their/our homeland the Siraya people have
become illegal and non-existent.
Still, the petition continues and the demonstration will take
place as planned.
Chun (Jimmy) Huang
PhD candidate,
Linguistics, University of Florida
Linguistic consultant,
Tainan Pingpu Siraya Culture Association
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