The Aboriginal Transitional Justice Classroom (原住民轉型正義小教室) and the New Power Party (NPP) yesterday urged the government to reinstate traditional Aboriginal territories on private land after the group’s protest camp was torn down by police.
“Aborigines have been forced out of their homes since the founding of the Republic of China, but we have never given up,” the Aboriginal group said in a statement on Monday.
“We will continue to fight until the nation corrects the Guidelines for Demarcating Aboriginal Land or Tribal Areas (原住民族土地或部落範圍土地劃設辦法), which has deprived Aborigines of their land,” it said.
Photo: CNA
The “classroom,” led by Bunun singer Nabu Husungan Istanda, Amis singer Panai Kusui and documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, began as a sit-in protest in front of the Presidential Office Building on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on Feb. 23, 2017.
Due to pressure from the Taipei City Government, the group later moved their protest camp to Exit 1 of National Taiwan University Hospital MRT station nearby, where they regularly give talks on Aboriginal issues and performed traditional music.
The camp, decorated with banners, lilies and painted rocks, was torn down by police yesterday morning on what would have been the group’s 699th day of protest.
The city government on Jan. 4 and Wednesday last week notified the group that it would tear down the camp because its application to use the road expired on Dec. 31 and that it had breached the Taipei City Park Management Ordinance (台北市公園管理自治條例) by leaving objects around in a disorderly manner.
The group would keep protesting until traditional Aboriginal territories are redrawn and Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Icyang Parod steps down, Mayaw said.
“We will continue to stay here. We will not give up,” Mayaw said.
Although President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) apologized to Aborigines on Aug. 1, 2016, she has yet to deliver on her promise to realize transitional justice for them, he added.
The group launched its protest because the council contravened the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法) by restricting their land rights to traditional territories on public land, NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said.
Icyang should “correct the obvious mistake” of excluding private land from traditional Aboriginal territories, he said.
The “classroom” has always protested in a peaceful manner and the city government’s decision to tear down its camp was a breach of their rights to free expression, he added.
The Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan should amend the guidelines that have fragmented Aboriginal territories and undermined tribal autonomy, NPP Taipei City councilors Lin Liang-chun (林亮君), Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟) and Huang Yu-fen (黃郁芬) said in a joint statement.
The NPP would continue to promote Aborigines’ rights at the legislature and work at the city council to make the city more friendly for protesters, the statement said.
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