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Sediq Aborigines move closer to official recognition

A campaign by Sediq Aborigines to be recognized as the nation's 14th Aboriginal tribe made significant progress yesterday when the Council of Indigenous Peoples agreed to submit their application to the Cabinet.

A group of more than 100 Sediq Aborigines led by Watan Diro, the Sediq Tribal Name Restoration Association's executive director, visited the council yesterday to turn in 2,600 signatures to show their determination to be granted official status.

They were received by top officials at the council -- including council Minister Icyang Parod.

The officials responded positively to the Sediq activists.

"We'll submit the application, along with a report and other documents to the Cabinet for final review," a council official told the Sediq representatives.

But the Sediq campaign has not been an easy one.

The Sediq, who live mostly in Nantou County, have been officially classified as Atayal Aborigines ever since a Japanese ethnologist listed them by the name when Japan ruled Taiwan. The proximity of the two tribes' homelands and similarities in customs contributed to the classification.

The Sediq can be further divided into three ethnolinguistic groups: the Toda, the Tgdaya and the Truku.

The Sediq campaign ran into controversy when the Truku, who moved to Hualien County several hundred years ago, were recognized as a separate tribe in 2004.

The Sediq of Nantou and the Truku of Hualien had debated for some time over whether they should be recognized as a single group or whether the Truku should be separate.

Before the two groups came to an agreement, then premier Yu Shyi-kun announced at a campaign rally for a Hualien County commissioner candidate that the Truku of Hualien would receive official recognition.

The Sediq were shocked by the news and also decided to seek recognition.

But the process was then stalled because the council and an ethnologist it had commissioned, Lim Siu-theh (林修澈), could not find evidence that the Sediq and the Truku were separate groups.

After repeated protests by the Sediq and several rounds of negotiations the council decided at a meeting on Friday to approve the application and submit it to the Cabinet -- the last step before recognition is granted -- for review.

The director of the council's office of planning, Calivat Gadu, declined to predict how long it would take for the Cabinet to approve the application, or whether it would be approved at all.

While congratulating the Sediq, Calivat also expressed concern.

"There are still many sub-tribes who are trying to gain official recognition," he told the Taipei Times in a brief interview in his office after the meeting. "The Sediq case is a special one -- but if all those tribes want to follow in the Sediq's footsteps, it'll be chaotic."
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