The issue of returning land that historically belonged to Aborigines is one that is likely to spark tension between them and the government, and is best approached by establishing historical facts, Council of Indigenous Peoples Vice Chairman Pasuya Poitsonu (浦忠成) said yesterday.
Poitsonu made the remarks at a three-day camp that began yesterday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽). It was hosted by the council and the National Academy for Educational Research to train people to research Aboriginal history.
Poitsonu and Transitional Justice Commission Acting Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) signed a “fostering talent in Aboriginal villages” agreement, which aims to guide Aborigines in the task of restoring historical facts.
Photo provided by the Transitional Justice Commission
The two agencies agreed to train members of Aboriginal communities so that they can establish historical facts, assist communities in researching and reviewing traditional Aboriginal territories, and host forums to share findings.
Researching Aboriginal land is a lengthy task, as large amounts of data must be sifted through to find useful pieces of information, Yang said, comparing the task to crumpled pieces of paper that must be ironed out to extract the information on them.
Hopefully, through the talent fostering program, more Aborigines would return to their communities to tell their own stories, she said.
The Transitional Justice Commission’s role in realizing Aboriginal transitional justice is to compile a list of Aborigines who were persecuted in the White Terror era so that the injustices perpetrated against them can be redressed through legal channels, Yang said.
She encouraged young Aborigines to return to their communities to talk with elders and learn their history, saying that transitional justice is as much the public’s task as it is the government’s.
The researching of Aboriginal territories is crucial, as they are where languages and cultures originated, Poitsonu added.
Fifty people attended the camp.
Participants included people of Han ethnicity, people from plains communities, as well as 46 people hailing from the 16 Aboriginal communities recognized by the government, the council said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS