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2012 ELECTION: Pingpu
Aborigines stage series of rallies for recognition
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
Hundreds of Pingpu Aborigines representing several different tribes from across
the country yesterday staged rallies at several locations, urging political
leaders to grant them official recognition as Aborigines.
As they arrived at the offices of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) and
the presidential campaign or party headquarters of the People First Party (PFP),
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
they sang: “We are Pingpu Aborigines, we’ll never forget who we are, let’s stand
up and remind them not to forget their great-great grandmas,” a line from the
theme song behind the movement that they hope will see them gain official
recognition.
The Pingpu are Aborigines who live in flat areas of the country. Because of a
long history of contact and intermarriage with Han immigrants from China over
the past four centuries, Pingpu culture, including language and identity, has
been eroded.
In the song, the Pingpu said they wanted to remind people of their “great-great
grandmas” because most of the early Han immigrants to Taiwan were men who
married Pingpu women.
Research by Taipei-based McKay Memorial Hospital geneticist Mary Lin (林媽利) shows
that at least 80 percent of non-Aborigines in Taiwan have genes from
Austronesian peoples.
During the Japanese colonial period most Pingpu could still be identified and
have their Aboriginal status noted on their household registration records.
However, most lost official recognition of that status in the 1950s and early
1960s after the KMT regime moved to Taiwan as they failed to register their
identity with the new government.
“It’s not our fault that we didn’t register our Aboriginal identity, it was
because of administrative errors on the government’s part,” Tainan Pepo Siraya
Culture Association chairwoman Uma Talavan said. “We Pingpu have lived in Taiwan
for 500 to 6,000 years, it’s a fact, and we should not suffer for the
government’s mistake.”
She said that in 1957, when the Taiwan Provincial Government asked people who
were noted as Aborigines on their household registration cards from the Japanese
colonial government to register their ethnic identity, “many Pingpu communities
did not receive the official notice, even though we Sirayas have Aboriginal
status marked on household registration cards.”
The Pingpu were received by CIP Planning Department Director Alang Manglavan,
who only said the council would “respect the wishes of the Pingpu.”
At President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign -headquarters, campaign
office Administrative Department deputy director Wu Kuo-sheng (吳國勝) said: “The
only thing I can do is to take your petition to the Executive Yuan, since we’re
only a campaign office and have no power.”
When asked if he could help arrange a meeting between the Pingpu and Ma, Wu said
he could not give a definite answer.
The PFP and the DPP, on the other hand, responded much more positively to the
Pingpu’ appeal.
“What happened to the Pingpu is certainly because of the government and what a
responsible government would do is correct that mistake,” PFP spokesman Wu Kun-yu
(吳崑玉) said. “If the PFP wins the presidential election, we would handle the
issue through the executive branch, and if we don’t, we will help take care of
it through the legislative branch.”
DPP Department of Aboriginal Affairs director Icyang Parod, who doubles as a New
Taipei City (新北市) councilor, said the DPP was supportive of the Pingpu’ demands.
“In [DPP Chairperson] Tsai Ing-wen’s [蔡英文] 10-year policy guidelines, she
clearly stated that the DPP supports Pingpu’ call for official Aboriginal
recognition,” he said. “In fact, the CIP under the DPP had already started to
push for Pingpu recognition by creating a special panel for it — although
unfortunately the panel was suspended in 2008 when the KMT took office.”
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