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Council called on to
recognize Pingpu as Aboriginal group
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Pingpu Aborigines, academics and participants at a public hearing at the Council
of Indigenous Peoples headquarters yesterday called on it to officially
recognize Pingpu Aboriginal tribes.
Pingpu, which means “plains” in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), is a term used
to describe Aboriginal tribes who inhabited the nation’s western plains areas.
Having enjoyed official recognition until the end of the Japanese Colonial
Period in 1945, most of Pingpu Aborigines lost their status in the 1950s because
they failed to officially register their ethnicity due to a series of
administrative problems.
In the past few decades, Pingpu Aborigines have been campaigning to regain
official recognition of their Aboriginal status.
However, the council has not responded positively to the calls, though it has
created a special task force to research the issue.
Citing evidence from DNA, geneticist Marie Lin (林媽利) said that the Pingpu are no
different genetically to currently recognized Aboriginal tribes.
“Based on my genetic research, there’s no question that Pingpu and current
officially recognized Aboriginal tribes are all Aborigines,” Lin told the public
hearing. “The DNA structures of Pingpu Aborigines from the Siraya tribe and most
of the officially recognized tribes are very similar.”
While many Aborigines have opposed granting official recognition to the Pingpu,
fearing that it may divert scarce resources, Awi Mona, a Sediq and an associate
professor at National Taipei University of Education, disagreed.
“The Pingpu were around way before the modern state, and while some have lost
their cultures, languages, and social structures to a degree that it’s difficult
to recover, we must not deny that there are still Pingpu who have obviously
retained their cultures and communities,” Awi said.
“It wouldn’t have too much impact — or at least not as serious as some people
imagine — on the rights enjoyed by Aborigines currently recognized by the
government,” he said.
Responding to the fear of some Aborigines, Awi said that rather than granting
the Pingpu all the rights and welfare measures enjoyed by Aborigines in one go,
the government could consider creating a set of different laws and regulations
for Pingpu Aborigines once they are granted official recognition, or create a
transitional period and grant the Pingpu special Aboriginal rights gradually.
However, Hsieh Chung-hui (謝中輝), an Amis and school administrator from Longshan
Junior High School in Taipei, voiced his opposition to granting the Pingpu
Aboriginal status, saying that they have lost their cultures and have been
“assimilated into Han culture”.
Cheng-hiong Talavan, a Siraya from Greater Tainan said the Pingpu should not be
held responsible for the loss of their cultures and languages.
“It’s the government’s fault that Pingpu languages and cultures are severely
endangered, it’s not our fault,” Talavan said. “It’s the government’s
responsibility to protect the nation’s Aborigines, and to make up for the
mistakes of the past.”
Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) also appeared during the public hearing to
express his support for the Pingpu movement.
“I am here to give my full support to the restoration of Aboriginal status for
the Sirayas in Tainan, as well as all Pingpu tribes across the country,” Lai
said. “I cannot agree with the council’s view that ‘Pingpu’ and ‘Aborigines’ are
different, because they are all the same whether viewed from a genetic,
linguistic, or cultural point of view. Such a situation was a strategy by
colonial regimes to divide peoples. We do not understand why the council would
hold such a view.”
Lai went on to say that, historically the Pingpu had suffered the most, but as
they have stood side by side with other Aborigines in struggling for Aboriginal
rights, “the Pingpu should not be excluded from enjoying government policies to
make up for the past mistakes.”
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