20110917 Return to tribal names, Aborigines urged

Return to tribal names, Aborigines urged

RECONNECTING: Aborigines have been allowed to use their tribal names on official documents since 1995, but just a fraction of Taiwan’s half a million Aborigines do so

By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter

From left to right, Sumay Kacaw, Mayaw Biho, Panai Kusui and Ado’ Kalitaing Pacidal, all Amis, hold up their new ID cards with a transliteration of their Aboriginal names in Chinese characters, at a press conference in Taipei City yesterday.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

Aboriginal filmmaker — and independent legislative candidate — Mayaw Biho, along with several other Aboriginal singers and youths, yesterday urged Aborigines to give up Chinese names and revert to tribal names, starting with their Facebook names.

Showing their national ID cards with transliterations of their Aboriginal names in Chinese characters, Mayaw along with fellow Amis Panai Kusui, Sumay Kacaw, Ado’ Kalitaing Pacidal, who are all singers, and Lisin Haluwey — a student at National Dong Hwa University — told a press conference in Taipei that they are Taiwanese Aborigines, and called on all Aborigines to drop their Chinese names and readopt their Aboriginal names.

Although Aborigines have been legally allowed to use their tribal names as their official names since 1995, only about 20,000 out of Taiwan’s half a million Aborigines have used tribal names on official documents.

Before 1995, Aborigines were required by law to use Chinese family and given names.

“Not many people changed their names, because when they want to do so, they often have to go through a complicated process at local household registration offices, and could face discrimination from non-Aborigines in the country,” Mayaw told reporters.

“Sometimes Aborigines are just too busy to go to the household registration office to change their names, which would have to be followed by a long process of name-changing on all official documents,” he said.

All traditional tribal names have important cultural significance and could serve as a bridge between the person and the history, culture, and traditions of their tribe, Mayaw said.

He also encouraged Aborigines to demand that the place names of sites in traditional Aboriginal domains in Taiwan be converted back into their traditional Aboriginal names.

“If you don’t have time, or have some difficulties in changing back to your tribal names officially, why don’t you start by changing your screen name on Facebook or other social networking sites?” Mayaw said.

“This is a way for people around you to get used to your tribal names and, when the public gets used to it, the discrimination would disappear,” he said.

Lisin said that before officially changing her name, she had been pondering the questions “who am I?” and “what kind of person do I want to become?”

“Since I was little, my Aboriginal identity was a source of discrimination against me, and I always tried to hide my identity until entering the university’s College of Indigenous Studies,” she said.

“After entering college and having increased contact with Aboriginal communities, I gradually became proud of who I am, and decided to officially give up my Chinese name and readopt my tribal name because I want people to know who I am before they even get to know me,” Lisin said.