Taiwan’s first indigenous lawyer, Pawan Yumin (楊志航), an Atayal, died at the age of 66 on Monday last week.
His family held a memorial yesterday at his community, M’bwanan, in Miaoli County’s Taian Township (泰安), where Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Tseng Chih-yung (曾智勇) presented a posthumous commendation in recognition of his contributions to indigenous peoples and the legal profession.
Community members at the ceremony recalled that he was not only a steadfast legal advocate, but a powerful cultural inheritor who often shared Atayal stories, and emphasized the significance of giving equal weight to law and culture in restoring indigenous dignity in modern society.
Photo courtesy of the Miaoli County Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Group Development Department
Miaoli County Deputy Commissioner Chiu Li-li (邱俐俐) and Miaoli County Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Group Development Department Director Maya Buyung attended the funeral.
Pawan Yumin left home at a young age to pursue his education, the department said in a statement yesterday.
Despite the challenges of the urban-rural divide, he graduated from National Taiwan University’s Department of Law in 1983 through perseverance and diligence, it said.
In 1991, he passed the bar exam, becoming the first indigenous lawyer in Taiwan’s judicial history, it said, adding that he dedicated himself to advancing and safeguarding indigenous rights.
Since 1993, he established several law firms to assist indigenous clients with land, forestry and cultural cases, contributing his professional expertise to his community, it said.
He safeguarded the rights of the indigenous peoples with his profession, voicing his concerns about how the laws were unfair to their people, it said.
He advocated for the establishment of an “indigenous court,” promoting the idea that the judicial system should respect indigenous culture, it said. To further his cause, he traveled to New Zealand to study the Maori Land Court, the department said.
When he returned, he proposed reforms that laid the groundwork for strengthening judicial protections for indigenous peoples, it said.
His life was a major breakthrough for indigenous peoples in the judicial field, it said, adding that his passing is not only a loss to his community, but a shared sorrow for Taiwanese society.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
RSS