Council of Indigenous Peoples Deputy Minister Iwan Nawi yesterday said the council has completed a draft Aboriginal land and seas bill that is to be sent to the Presidential Office.
Nawi said she hopes the Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee can deliberate on the bill as soon as possible so that it can be sent to the Executive Yuan.
The council on Feb. 14 announced guidelines on the delineation of Aboriginal territories that would restrict the application of the “traditional area” label to government-owned land, explicitly excluding private land.
Aboriginal rights activists, opposed to the delineation, have been camped out on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei for the past 97 days.
A large amount of Aboriginal territory has been privatized and the exclusion would deprive Aborigines of the right to participate in the development of traditional territories that were seized and privatized by the Japanese and the Republic of China (ROC) government, the protesters have said.
The group yesterday told reporters that “traditional [Aboriginal] land should not be classified as private or public.”
Writer Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) joined the group in criticizing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.
“This government always emphasizes that it is the administration most open to dialogue, but communication is always so distant,” Chen said.
Nawi visited the protesters yesterday to engage in dialogue, but they failed to reach a consensus.
Documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, demanded clarification of the government’s delineation of traditional Aboriginal land along the lines of “private” and “public,” arguing that traditional land could not be classified in such a manner.
The classification of Aboriginal land as “private” is an attempt by the government to use civil law to deal with what should be an Aboriginal transitional justice issue, he said.
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
Traffic controls are to be in place in Taipei starting tonight, police said, as rallies supporting recall efforts targeting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers as well as a rally organized by the KMT opposing the recall campaigns are to take place tomorrow. Traffic controls are to be in place on City Hall Road starting from 10pm tonight and on Jinan Road Section 1 starting from 8am tomorrow, police said. Recall campaign groups in Taipei and New Taipei advocating for the recall of KMT legislators, along with the Safeguard Taiwan, Anti-Communist Alliance (反共護台聯盟), have previously announced plans for motorcycle parades and public