![]() UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).ĬHANG: You stick the stick in the ground. If we are able to practice hunting culture without any worry about legal impact, then we can heal.ĬHANG: That's why her father and other members of the tribe are working to restore certain hunting rights.ĬHANG: At this point, one of the elders in Ciwang's community, Loh Shi, leads a prayer as two hunters set a trap.ĬHANG: They've been kind enough to demonstrate some traditional hunting techniques. In this way, we can see intergeneration relationship-building. ![]() TEYRA: If we are able to practice hunting, we are allowed to follow our elders. So I feel like that's very important for our psychological and spiritual health.ĬHANG: And Ciwang's research has found that revitalizing traditional practices like hunting can help heal intergenerational trauma. We need to coexist with them together in order to maintain our daily life and in order to have the next generations. TEYRA: Hunting in our language is thasamma. And, she says, ecological balance is already built into their concept of hunting. It's a spiritual practice, a communion with ancestors. And Ciwang explains that hunting, to them, is about much more than killing animals for meat. Hunting is central to the Truku way of life. And so I started to realize, yeah, I can see the impact of colonial oppression.ĬHANG: Indigenous peoples say one form of ongoing oppression is Taiwan's conservation laws, which restrict their hunting. We don't have a domestic violence problem. TEYRA: Traditionally, we don't have a substance abuse problem. ![]() Ciwang says stripping her people of their cultural roots has led to enormous mental health challenges, like substance abuse. TEYRA: I feel like an entire lifestyle change.ĬHANG: What Ciwang means is how Truku people were forced from their homes in the mountains down to the foothills, where now the soundtrack to their daily lives is the noise of traffic.ĬHANG: Indigenous people were also punished if they ever spoke their native languages instead of the required Mandarin. Because.ĬHANG: In what ways have Truku people been forced to assimilate here? TEYRA: Indigenous people also face a long history of colonial oppression - for example, like a forced relocation, assimilation policy. As a language, then that's a particular, specific language.ĬHANG: A language that is never Indigenous. But why every time when we mention Taiwanese. I think because, in Taiwan, we have at least 16 Indigenous groups. When I was a little girl growing up, and I was taught to call it Taiwanese. I say, because I'm Indigenous, I am a real Taiwanese person.ĬHANG: Even when people on this island refer to Taiwanese as a language, they usually mean a language spoken all over Taiwan called Hokkien.ĬHANG. ![]() YUDAW: (Through interpreter) A lot of average Taiwanese people would say to me, you're Indigenous. But Ciwang's father, Teyra Yudaw, says a lot of people in Taiwan still look down on his people. President Tsai Ing-wen has formally apologized to the Indigenous people for centuries of abuse, and Indigenous culture is now being taught in some schools. The Taiwanese government tries to hold up those communities as part of what makes Taiwan a distinct society. Today, Indigenous people form about 2% of this island's population. She's a professor of social work at National Taiwan University in Taipei and focuses on the historical trauma that Indigenous communities suffer. TEYRA: It's impossible for us to ride a wild boar to go to any place.ĬHANG: Ciwang says ignorance like this led to the research she's doing today. TEYRA: You know, wild boar is very aggressive. OK, have you ever ridden a wild boar to go to school? YUDAW: (Singing in non-English language).ĬHANG: He's singing, I wish you strength, because you need strength to survive in these mountains.ĬHANG: Growing up, when people would learn that Ciwang was Indigenous, they would sometimes ask the most ridiculous questions, like whether she rode a wild boar to get to school. She grew up here in Hualien.ĬHANG: Ciwang's father, Teyra Yudaw, now runs a bed and breakfast, and he greets us with a traditional welcome song. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).ĬHANG: Since our team has been in Taiwan, we've been asking two central questions - what does it mean to be Taiwanese, and who does Taiwan belong to? You don't often hear answers to those questions from the people who've been on this island long before anyone else - before the Chinese, the Japanese or the Dutch - the people who were in Taiwan first.ĬIWANG TEYRA: Nice to meet you in person.ĬHANG: Ciwang Teyra is half Truku - on her father's side. It's a region where many members of the Indigenous Truku tribe live. In Hualien County, Taiwan, we're on the eastern edge of this island, where lush green mountains loom over the Pacific Ocean.
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