Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) yesterday denied that the performance of an Aboriginal head-hunting dance for the nation’s South Pacific diplomatic allies during a planned visit by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) later this month had been canceled because of a discriminatory view of Aboriginal culture held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
“The performance was canceled not because of discrimination, but for technical reasons,” Sun said yesterday. “A regular performance by the Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe, including the head-hunting dance, lasts about 60 to 90 minutes, but the troupe only gets about 15 to 20 minutes to perform at state banquets.”
He said the performance would not be as good if performed during a state banquet because of a lack of professional sound and light equipment, and that the cultural significance behind the dance may be too complicated to explain in the allotted time.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE FORMOSA ABORIGINAL SONG AND DANCE GROUP
“The controversy is just the result of a misunderstanding,” he said.
Sun made the remark when asked by legislators — including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), and Aboriginal legislators May Chin (高金素梅) of the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union and Chen Ying (陳瑩) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — to comment on the issue.
A report in yesterday’s Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) said the group was invited to perform on Ma’s upcoming tour of Taiwan’s South Pacific allies because they share a common Austronesian culture with Taiwan’s Aborigines.
Originally, the dance troupe had prepared three dances from the Harvest Festival from the Amis and the Puyuma tribes, as well as the head-hunting dance of the Truku tribe.
However, MOFA considered the head-hunting dance to be too violent and inappropriate for diplomatic events, the report said.
In ancient times, the Trukus would cut off the head of a warrior from a rival tribe as a way to show bravery and to please ancestral spirits during a war or when a Truku community faced disaster.
The ancient Truku believed that once decapitated, the spirit of the enemy warrior would become a friend and bring good luck. They would thus have the head present at celebrations, “feed” the head with food and wine and treat it with respect.
However, Sun’s explanation did not convince lawmakers and activists.
“People of other ethnicities cannot decide what’s good and what’s bad for Aborigines. If they do so, that’s discrimination,” Chen said. “This is not something that can be explained by calling it a ‘misunderstanding.’”
“You say that the head-hunting dance is too complicated to explain. Well, that’s how sophisticated Aboriginal cultures are — unless the government thinks that there should only be superficial things in Aboriginal cultures,” she said.
Taiwan Aboriginal Society secretary-general Isak Afo also called the decision to cancel the head-hunting dance “inappropriate.”
He said the performances of Truku, Amis and Puyuma dances could demonstrate the diversity of Taiwan’s Aboriginal cultures, because the Truku live in the mountains while the Amis and the Puyuma live on the coast.
“Although Austronesian peoples live in many countries, not many countries have such diverse Austronesian cultures — by canceling the Truku dance, we lose the chance to showcase this diversity,” he said.
Meanwhile, MOFA Deputy Spokesman James Chang (章計平) said yesterday that the ministry and other experts suggested the troupe replace the head-hunting dance with one more “lively and cheerful” at a rehearsal late last month.
The MOFA representative present at the rehearsal was Matthew Lee (李世明), director-general of the Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
“You know the background of the [head hunting dance], right?” Lee told the Taipei Times by telephone. “If you were [me], what decision would you make? The answer is very clear.”
Chang said the decision was made not only by the ministry but also by about 10 to 20 “experts who have knowledge about Aboriginal culture,” refusing to name them.
Saying the ministry “very much respected Aboriginal culture,” Chang added that it consulted the experts yesterday and they said that a more “lively and cheerful” performance was a better choice.
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