Truku (太魯閣族)

Read: Taroko people

Truku people seek recognition

By Ko Shu-ling

Convinced that the Truku tribe of Hualien County evolved differently from its Sedeq ancestors in Nantou County, Tera Yudau (鐵拉尤道) has dedicated himself over the past decade to press for the official recognition of the Truku as an Aboriginal tribe.

Tera Yadau, who's Chinese name is Lee Chih-shoon (李季順), has managed to collect 15,000 signatures from his people and took the case to the Cabinet's Council of Indigenous Peoples for further review, pending the final approval of the Cabinet.

The council is preparing to contract an ethnologist to study the tribe's pedigree, language and social system in a bid to grant the Truku people's wish to restore their dignity.

According to Lin Chiang-i (林江義), director of the council's Planning Department, the council will present draft amendments to a measure regarding the recognition of Aboriginal tribes to the Cabinet for ratification today.

Among other things, the draft would expand the members of the review committee from 10 to between 17 and 23 to make the review mechanism of the nation's Aboriginal tribes more complete.

"The reason behind this is to include ethnologists, anthropologists and politically-neutral social elite on the committee panel," Lin said. "By doing so, we hope the mechanism would function more impartially and objectively."

The committee at present consists of 10 representatives from the nation's 10 officially recognized sub-tribes of the Kaoshan Aboriginal people.

The Kaoshan tribes, as opposed to the Pingpu tribes, are indigenous people living in the mountainous areas.

The Pingpu tribes refer to the indigenous people living on the plains and their cultures and life-styles were greatly influenced by the Han immigrants who arrived on the island during the course of the 17th century.

The Chinese immigrants used "Pingpu Fan" (平埔番), or "savage on the plain," to describe the head-hunting Aborigines.

Unlike the Aborigines living in mountain areas, who lived from hunting, the Pingpu are described in historical documents as fishermen, with few agricultural skills.

Over the centuries, the Pingpu intermarried with Han Chinese and most of their language and customs were lost.

Like the Kaoshan Aborigines' 10 sub-tribes -- all of which have already been recognized as official tribes -- the Pingpu people also consist of 10 sub-tribes.

The 10 recognized Kaoshan Aboriginal tribes are the Atayal, Saisiyat, Bunun, Tsou, Paiwan, Rukai, Puyuma, Amis, Tao and Thao.

The 10 Pingpu tribes are the Kavalan, Ketagalan, Makattao, Taokas, Pazzehe, Vupuran, Poavosa, Arikun, Lloa and Siraiya.

Following the government's recognition of the Thao as the nation's 10th official Aboriginal tribe in 2001, the Cabinet last year approved a proposal presented by the Aboriginal Council to recognize the Kavalan people as the nation's 11th Aboriginal tribe.

Commenting on Tera Yudau's request, Lin said that the council will handle the matter carefully and in accordance with the due process of the law.

"This is a serious and important issue. We respect the tribe's ethnic consciousness and will remain impartial and neutral while handling the matter," Lin said.

According to Lin, more information is still needed for the official recognition of an Aboriginal tribe in addition to the tribe's wish to become one.

"In this case, it's obvious that most of the tribe's people in Hualien County want to be recognized as Truku," Lin said.

"However, we still need to know more about their pedigree, demography, cultural uniqueness and language to see whether they really stand out and are different from other indigenous tribes."

Tera Yudau, superintendent of the Yutong Junior High School, said that Hualien County's Truku tribe has long been incorrectly categorized as part of the Atayal tribal system and has evolved very differently from its ancestors, the Sedeq.

"The mistake has its origin in the Japanese colonial era when the Japanese ethnologists wrongfully categorized the Atayal and Sedeq tribes as one because both of the tribes' people had facial tattoos," he said.

He also opposed to the idea of naming his tribe as Sedeq, because of cultural considerations.

"`Sedeq' in our language means third person and the outer self, while `Truku' means first person and the inner self as well as those men who are brave, honest, generous and kind and those women who are good at weaving, house chores and loyal to their husbands," he said.

From:Taipei Times