National Taiwan University should respect precedent and return the bones of Bunun villagers unearthed more than four decades ago for research, the Council of Indigenous Peoples said on Monday, as Bahuan Village (馬遠) residents’ struggle to win the return of the remains draws national attention.
University researchers dug up more than 60 skeletons from the Loiq gravesite of the village in Hualien County’s Wanrong Township (萬榮) in the 1960s.
The university has said the excavation was done with the permission of village leaders after it learned that there were plans to move the burial ground, the village’s self-help association said.
The village had acted under compulsion, it said, calling for the skeletons to be returned.
“Our homes were spread out widely, so many people did not know [about the excavation] at the time,” self-help association spokesman Alang Mangloauan said, adding that university researchers had “asked” villagers for their consent through local police, who were the main representatives of the national government.
The bodies at the site had been buried between 1933 and 1955, after villagers were forced to relocate from Nantou County by the Japanese colonial government, he said.
In a statement, the council promised to negotiate with the university for the skeletons’ return and called on the university to respect its own precedents, including its return of the bones of Sediq chief Mona Rudao to Nantou County for burial in 1973.
Mona’s remains ended up as a specimen in the university’s archeology department after he was killed leading the unsuccessful 1930 Wushe Revolt, the last major Aboriginal uprising against Japanese colonial rule.
While acknowledging that it lacks legal power to compel the university to return the remains, the council called on the university to respect the spirit of the provisions of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that grant indigenous rights over ancestral bones in government possession.
Non-partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), who is part Atayal, is scheduled to host talks between the Ministry of Education, National Taiwan University and village representatives later this week.
Control Yuan Vice President Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) has applied for an investigation to be conducted.
TECH PROGRAM: A US official said that an important part of the delegation’s trip would be to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co executives The US is to send officials in charge of chip development to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to promote cooperation in the global semiconductor supply chain, the US Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. Chips Program Office Director Michael Schmidt announced the visit, which marks the first time officials from the office are to visit the three nations since it was set up in September last year. “As semiconductors and technologies continue to evolve, the United States will keep working with allies and partners to develop coordinated strategies to ensure that malign actors cannot use the latest technologies to undermine our collective
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with counties that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported
RSS