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Amis protest plans
for resort on ancestral land
LAST RESORT: Demonstrators gathered outside the
Legislative Yuan asking the government to disallow development project proposals
by private companies
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
Amis men and women from A¡¦tolan (Dulan)
Village in Donghe Township, Taitung County, hold a protest outside the
legislature in Taipei yesterday against a build-operate--transfer holiday resort
project on the Pacific coast.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Shouting slogans, singing traditional
songs and performing traditional dances, dozens of young Amis Aborigines from
the village of A¡¦tolan yesterday gathered in front of the Legislative Yuan,
accusing the government of planning development projects in their traditional
domains without first getting their consent.
The Amis protesters ¡X mostly young people ¡X were upset over plans by the East
Coast National Scenic Area Administration Headquarters to invite private
corporations to build a holiday resort along the A¡¦tolan coast, which is
administratively known as Dulan Village (³£Äõ) in Taitung County¡¦s Donghe Township
(ªFªe), through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) plan.
¡§The [administration] is trying to build a holiday resort on the coast of
A¡¦tolan. The location that they picked is called Dulanbi (³£Äõ»ó), or ¡¥Pacifalan¡¦
in our language,¡¨ said Loan Alang, a spokesman for the village¡¦s protest action
group. ¡§Pacifalan is believed to be the location where our ancestors landed
before they established the village and it¡¦s also where we hold our traditional
festivals.¡¨
¡§It belongs to all residents of A¡¦tolan and to all Amis people. The government
has no right to allow private corporations to take over,¡¨ he added.
Suming, an Amis singer who was born in A¡¦tolan, also called on the government to
halt the development project, which, he said, would only bring destruction to
the village and to the ecosystem.
¡§If you really loved A¡¦tolan, you would not harm it,¡¨ he said. ¡§Part of the
beauty of the village comes from the Amis culture and the beauty of the place
cannot be replaced by large resort hotels.¡¨
The protesters said they would perform the ¡§dance of defense¡¨ at Pacifalan on
Saturday.
The ¡§dance of defense¡¨ is a traditional dance unique to A¡¦tolan.
Dancers dress in full traditional regalia, with knives and small bells and
carrying decorated umbrellas. As they dance, they move the umbrella up and down
and jump to make the bells ring.
Village elders said that the dance originated with armed escorts who accompanied
hunters or women and children on trips outside the village.
The bells were meant to warn possible enemies along the way that the travelers
were escorted by armed warriors, the elders said.
Elders also explained that escorts used to carry pikes, but as the Japanese
colonial government prohibited this for fear that they might attack the
Japanese, dancers then replaced the pikes with umbrellas.
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