Over 130 Aborigines from a village of 400 yesterday protested in front of the Executive Yuan because an official likened them to mouse excrement.
"Chang Ho-ping (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The protest was triggered by remarks made by Chang, superintendent of the Yushan National Park (
To obtain water during the dry season, the Bunun people planned to connect pipes in the mountains to draw water to their homes. But they had to ask permission from the Yushan National Park Headquarters (
The Aborigines lost their rights to freely use resources on the land, like their ancestors, once the national park was set up. Officials have justified such restrictions as promoting the reservation.
The Bunun tried to create a waterfall in the national park to provide a water supply because the rain they rely on for water is insufficient in certain seasons. "But we were fined by the park administrators as having violated reservation regulations," said Lanhyaho Ishilidwan, a leader of the villagers.
A Public Television Service (PTS, 公視) reporter interviewed Chang on Feb 3. Chang said such resources do not belong exclusively to the indigenous population.
"Tungpu First is just a village of 100 people. We actually would like to expel them from the park," Chang said.
"It is just like mouse excrement ruining the reservation's whole pot of rice gruel ? They are just 100 people but have created a negative image of the national park." said Liu Ching-nan (
He said the Bunun seemed to be playing politics. "One can choose to make a fuss over this incident or one can take it with equanimity."
But the Bunun were incensed. "This is our land. It's us that should expel the national park authorities away from our territory," said Amu Ishilidwan.
"My heart cried when I heard the analogy," said Lahyaho Ishilidwan.
Premier Chang Chung-hsiung (
But the dispute over the Bunun's land rights remains unsettled, said Abus Ishilidwan and Lyikng Yuma of Tayal, another tribe that has suffered restrictions in the Shueipa National Park (雪霸公園). Lyikng Yuma said the ongoing dispute has haunted indigenous peoples of various tribes.
Native Taiwanese have lived on land that they view as a communal resource. There is no legal protection for their claim on the land, however, he said.
Increasing claims on the land from outside the community have cost them their land rights due to the lack of legal recognition of their rights.
The establishment of national parks on tribal land taken by the government is a prime example, say Aborigines.
The Aborigines have lost land rights that support their livelihood, land used for hunting and picking fruits.
"We, with the inherited wisdom of the ancestors, actually understand reservations better than the Han people," said Lanyaho Ishilidwan.
"For example, we don't hunt in spring when animals nourish their descendants," he said.
"We cannot collect dabagai, a kind of fruit on the vines, which is of high economic value. But the park administration allows Han people rich enough to win the contract to do so," said Lanyaho Ishilidwan.
"But the Han still need to hire us to climb up the vines up to five floors in height to pick the fruit," he said, "but we are always poorly paid while risking our lives for their benefit."
"The banning of hunting also makes it impossible to complete the teaching of traditional rituals vital to our culture," he added.
"As we have lost land rights to our ancestral domain, we rely only on a poor, unsteady income from agriculture harvests," said Buni Ishilidwan.
"My husband and I have not earned a penny for our four kids since November because it is too cold for anything to grow."
She said the poor living standards were due to the deprivation of land rights, which had caused many indigenous peoples to go to the cities for job opportunities. "But my niece, following the family's removal from the tribe, cannot even understand the Bunun language now."
Lanyaho Ishilidwan said that National Taiwan University, which has taken over from the government the experimental forest on their ancestral domain, has also threatened the tribe's well-being.
"They chop the woods down, including those belonging to us that were not planted by them, just because their forest project has failed," he said.
"But, this has caused mudslides in the area."
"Moreover, they prohibit us from approaching our ancestor's houses located on the land taken by them ? We can no longer teach our kids the history of our people," he said.
The Bunun yesterday also complained about the privileges of an illegal trout farm in the neighborhood that has stood in the Yushan park for over 10 years.
"The owner of the farm is the public representative of the village, who is the friend of a policeman in the park," they said.
The farm has constructed works to divert water from the upper stream of a river to the farm and dumps polluted water from the farm into the river.
This has impeded a Bunun plan to recover the flow of that river to breed fish for sale and thereby balance the local ecology.
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