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Local film festival to showcase dissident voices

CNA, TAIPEI
Friday, Dec 09, 2005, Page 17

A film festival on Canada, New Zealand and Taiwan's indigenous peoples will begin on Monday.

Thirty-two films will be shown in university audito-riums around the island free of charge until the end of next year.

The non-profit film festival is part of the International Indigenous Creativity Conference. The Council of Indigenous People (CIP), under the supervision of the Executive Yuan, signed a memorandum of

understanding with the Canadian government in 1994 and an arrangement with New Zealand last year to promote indigenous peoples' issues, allowing the three countries to organize the festival.

The festival starts at Chung Yuan University in Chungli City.

From there, the films will travel around Taiwan to Bunun tribes in Taitung, eastern Taiwan, Chiayi University, Pingtung Aboriginal Cultural Park, Shunyi Aboriginal Museum, Hualien Donghua University and Taichung's Providence University.

Other organizations and academic parties interested in showing the films are still trying to get in touch with the organizers.

Director of the General Relations Department of the Canadian Trade Office David Hamilton said during a news conference that the 13 films from his country were selected by the National Film Board of Canada among 450 made during the past 30 years.

"Indigenous peoples' culture is boundless. Canadian indigenous peoples are trying to tell their story to the world through these movies. We hope to bring a new point of view for Taiwanese audiences regarding indigenous peoples' issues," Hamilton said.

Indigenous peoples represent 4 percent of Canada's total population, while Taiwan's Aborigines make up 2 percent of the island's residents.

The festival will feature 14 films made by three Taiwanese indigenous directors.

Among the films from Taiwan, one of the most controversial is the one entitled, What is your real name? by Mayao Biho. The film talks about the controversy of Taiwanese indigenous people and whether to use their names in their ancestral tongue on identi-fication cards.

"Local regulations have for the last 11 years allowed indigenous people here to use their names in their mother tongue. But as of the end of September, there were only 890 indigenous people who rectified their Chinese name into their real name. But 65 of these apparently regret having done so, " said Mayao, who also has his mother tongue name on his ID card.

The film director humorously compared the number of people who rectified their name with the number of black-faced spoonbills, a protected migratory bird that overwinters in Taiwan.

"There are also about 800 of them. Last year we were winners because there were more of us than the birds. But this year we lost because there were more than 900 birds," Mayao said.

Mayao said that he was extremely surprised that his film was chosen because the topics he usually tackles are critical of the government.

Two of the Canadian films, Kanehsatake made by Alanis Obomsawin and No Turning Back from Greg Coyes, report on violent armed conflicts between indigenous peoples and governmental authorities when native peoples strive for the right to own their ancestral lands and to restore their civil rights.

Mayao said that indigenous activitism, such as fighting for the right to have names recorded in mother tongues, the right to follow Aboriginal cultural practices and to own ancestoral land, mostly follows the trend of Canada.

"If they didn't start, the indigenous people here wouldn't be that aware and have a path to follow," Mayao said.
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