When Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kolas Yotaka addressed the media following her inauguration as Cabinet spokeswoman last week, she expressed the hope that her name — which she has asked to be written using the Latin alphabet, rather than phoneticized with Chinese characters — would provide an opportunity for members of the public to become more familiar with traditional Aboriginal names.
Regrettably, Kolas’ request instead resulted in crass and discriminatory remarks about her name being made online.
One incident was particularly difficult for fellow Aborigines to stomach. A member of the Siraya people from Sincan (新港) in Tainan’s Sinshih District (新市) posted a comment online that touched upon their family’s use of the Latin alphabet to read the Bible and the difficulty of passing on Aboriginal language to the next generation.
The comment was met with a torrent of abuse and left many Aborigines astonished at how little understanding many members of the public still have of our peoples’ historic use of a romanized writing system.
Taiwanese Aborigines have suffered persecution under various colonial regimes for more than 400 years. In the 17th century, the Netherlands and Spain invaded and colonized the Siraya living in the Tainan area and the Basay in the north.
To facilitate governance, colonial rulers dispatched missionaries to record Aboriginal languages using a romanized phonetic system.
The indigenous languages were recorded in writing for the first time and important historical records, such as the Sinckan Manuscripts and Woord-boek der Favorlangsche Taal, Waarin het Favorlangs Voor, het Duits Achter Gestelt Is (“Dictionary of the Favorlang Language in Which Favorlang Precedes Dutch”), survive to this day.
Traditional Aboriginal names are loaded with meaning relating to the traditional cultural values of each distinct ethnic group. For example, the name “Mayaw,” which is used by the Amis people, represents a star that is said to protect the moon within Amis culture. The name “Daway,” used by the Pazeh people, means “climbing vine” or “blood lineage.”
The traditional naming system used by the Taokas — which combines an individual’s personal name with either their mother’s or father’s name — provides an important insight into the unique gender value system of the Taokas.
To survive successive waves of colonization by foreign powers, Aborigines were also forced to learn Fujianese Minnan — commonly known as Hoklo or Taiwanese — Mandarin and Japanese. Today, many Taiwanese Aborigines, living in a society that is still largely shaped by its colonial past, use romanized phonetics as a way to record and pass on the culture and wisdom that their ancestors struggled so hard to preserve.
Some choose to use Chinese characters to transcribe their traditional names in an attempt to bridge the gap between Aboriginal and Han Chinese culture.
For example, the Chinese character mai (買, to buy) is used to phoneticize the surname “Takalomay,” used by the Siraya, while du (毒, poison) is used by the Papora to transcribe the surname “Aitu.”
Such rare “Chinese” surnames represent a unique and beautiful part of Taiwanese culture.
As Aborigines work hard to develop methods to adjust to contemporary Taiwanese society, we must always remind ourselves that we are bound together as one by the soil of this land.
I simply ask that everyone adopt a respectful attitude toward traditional Aboriginal names and the ancestral cultural meaning that they embody.
Kaisanan Ahuan is a member of the Central Taiwan Pingpu Indigenous Groups Youth Alliance.
Translated by Edward Jones
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