The Secret's Out

The Executive Yuan held a ceremony in January to celebrate the restoration of an identity as a separate tribe to the Sakizaya. (Photo by Ku Chin-tang)

Publication Date：04/01/2007
Byline：ZOE CHENG

For 100 years after a 19th century massacre, Sakizaya aborigines hid their identity. Now, in a changed society, they are recognized as Taiwan's 13th tribe.

A meeting in early February of group of around 20 aborigines belonging to a tribal development association to discuss various tribal issues had little to make it seem extraordinary, except perhaps that the attendees looked rather more cheerful than usual, despite the long list of issues that had to be dealt with and the lateness of their lunch. And they had reason to be cheerful; their people had, after all, just emerged from hiding after 128 years.

The story of the "lost tribe" of the Sakizaya is little known but truly remarkable. Historical materials show the Sakizaya were known to the Spanish during their brief sojourn in Taiwan in the 17th century. In 1874 the Japanese sent 3,000 troops on a punitive expedition to Taiwan to punish a southern aboriginal tribe for murdering shipwrecked sailors. This incursion showed how loose imperial Chinese control over the island was and, as a result, the Qing Dynasty, which during 200 years of nominal control had left the east of Taiwan alone, mounted a program to assert its authority over the entire island. This led to numerous clashes between Chinese forces and aboriginal groups in eastern Taiwan.

The bloodiest of these occurred in 1878 when the Sakizaya and Kavalan tribes, based in the Hualien area, lost a major battle to Qing forces, which was followed up by the attempted genocide of the Sakizaya, in what became known as the Takobowan Incident. To escape this ethnic cleansing, the surviving Sakizaya fled, many of them seeking sanctuary among the much larger Amis tribe. It is thought that, out of fear of revenge killings or further genocide, the surviving Sakizaya hid their identity from then on, with the consent of the accommodating Amis.

Only after the Japanese takeover of Taiwan in 1895 was any serious ethnological effort put into classifying Taiwan's aboriginal tribes. Japanese experts were led to believe that the exiled Sakizaya, living among the Amis, were in fact simply a subgroup of the larger tribe, and so Sakizaya were classified as Amis from then on. The Sakizaya, as a distinct tribe, officially did not exist.

Until, that is, January 17th this year. On that day, at a ceremony held at the Executive Yuan, Premier Su Tseng-chang met with Sakizaya elders to announce that, from now on, the tribe would be classified as a separate group, Taiwan's 13th officially recognized aboriginal tribe. As one elder at the ceremony put it, the Sakizaya, estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 strong, "had been living a life of exile." Now, he said, "we have really come home." The hidden tribe need hide no longer.

Knowing Who You Are

Bung Dongieman, a 70-year-old chieftain of Shoufeng township's Amis community, had seldom heard mention of Sakizaya history, but knew that he was a Sakizaya from an early age. He was born and grew up in Maleeyun village, where everyone was Sakizaya. His parents always told him they were Sakizaya and spoke the Sakizaya language at home. But the villagers, being surrounded by Amis, also picked up several Amis dialects to use in public. Dongieman, like many Sakizaya, mastered a number of different languages, an ability that enabled him to pass himself off as an Amis and not be identified as an outsider. He was even elected as an Amis chieftain. This ability to assimilate with a larger group while retaining a separate, almost secret identity marked the Sakizaya for a century or more.

Bung Dongieman is concerned about history's judgment on the role his generation has played in the restoration of identity. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

It is not perhaps surprising, however, that identity is more confused among younger members of the tribe, especially those living in Amis-dominated villages. Either because of long assimilation with the Amis, or the result of intermarriage between the two tribes, they can hardly tell the difference between the two peoples. Sayon Bulao, a 30-year-old Sakizaya woman, only discovered her ethnicity by accident. "I did not have a tribal name. When [for a job application] I needed one, I asked my father to give me one, I was named after my grandmother--Sayon. When I told some Amis my new name, they simply blurted out: 'Oh! You're a Sakizaya!'" Having never heard of the term Sakizaya, Bulao queried her father about her name. Only then did her father tell her that her family really was Sakizaya, that, though they lived among the Amis and spoke their language, they were not, in fact, Amis at all.

Bulao started a quest to understand more about her origins and met fellow tribespeople who were also researching the half-suppressed, half-forgotten history of their people.

One such person is Mayaw Kilang, a researcher at the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), the central government ministry dealing with aboriginal affairs. Kilang became aware of his Sakizaya blood at a seminar in which he learned that his village was home to many of the hidden tribe. The seminar's keynote speaker was Tiway Saion, who was colloquially known as "the founding father of the Amis" for his contribution to the preservation of Amis culture, but who was, in fact, Sakizaya. He learned that according to Saion's findings, a Spanish document from 1636 had recorded the name and activities of the Sakizaya. And documents after the Takobowan Incident refer to the Sakizaya as a separate tribe.

What's in a Name?

Kilang became interested in his identity and started to conduct fieldwork. The issue of "name-rectification"--allowing aboriginals to use their own names and identities instead of those foisted upon them by a Sinicizing government or Japanese ethnographers--had been in the public domain since 1990, when Saion organized a ceremony in the name of the Sakizaya. Nevertheless, when Kilang finished his master's degree thesis on the Sakizaya in 1999, he still found few tribal people who were willing to admit their real identity. Yet by the time he finished his compulsory two-year military service and returned to his community, consciousness of Sakizaya identity had seen a remarkable increase.

Eventually, Bulao, Kilang, and other tribal members agreed with the elders to push for the independence of the Sakizaya tribe from the Amis. "Saion was the captain of this campaign," Kilang recalls. In 2000, an organization which later became the Hualien County Sakizaya Tribal Development Association was formed. With the success of the Kavalan people's campaign to restore their status as a separate tribe--previously they were also classed as a subgroup of the Amis--in 2002, the movement for "rectification" gained further momentum.

In 2004 the association proposed to push for rectification and in October 2005 formally filed an application with the CIP. "The elders who know the Sakizaya language and culture, including Saion, are passing away; we feel that there isn't much time left," Kilang says. He estimates that fewer than 2,000 people speak the Sakizaya tongue, which is below the level needed to sustain it. The association's application to the CIP was accompanied by 4,800 letters from people confirming that they were Sakizaya rather than Amis. In 2006, the Sakizaya revived an ancient ceremony of ancestor worship called Palamal, performing it for the first time in more than a century. The progress of the Sakizaya's rectification turned out to be faster than expected.

"In the past, we relied on the Amis to acquire status and rights. Now we feel that it is necessary to restore our own status and identity so that the spirit of our ancestors can find consolation and rest peacefully," Dongieman says. The younger generation, however, is more concerned with their linguistic and cultural inheritance. Facing questions about the motives behind the campaign, Kilang says that they did not intend to ask for compensation for the past genocide. "Rather, we believe lessons should be learned for people to avoid conflicts so we might become a 'community of destiny,'" Kilang says.

The CIP handled their application for rectification, but the decision about recognition of any indigenous people is made at Cabinet level. In accordance with the Aboriginal Basic Act promulgated in 2004 and the regulations laid down therein, the Executive Yuan commissioned the department of ethnology at National Chengchi University to research the Sakizaya people and, based on its report, approved the recognition of the tribe. An aborigine identification law, currently drafted but not yet passed, will lay down the approval procedure for future rectification applications.

The Criteria of Separateness

The identification of aboriginal groups is a complicated issue and can be controversial. "The identification of indigenous peoples involves re-allocation of resources, so the criteria have to be strict," says Kilang from the viewpoint of the CIP. Anthropologists, however, find it difficult to agree on a standard by which a group can be clearly defined as a separate ethnicity. They are in consensus however that at least two criteria stand out: one is a strong sense of ethnic identity, the other has more to do with outward characteristics, such as language, religion, population distribution and history. "The major difference between the Amis and the Sakizaya is language. The variation level is about 60-70 percent from the language of the northern Amis and is even higher in the south," Dongieman says. The Sakizaya's ancient mythology, customs and ceremonies, still known to the elders, have also been pieced together to give a more focused picture of a distinct people.

Toko Saion and Sayon Bulao are two young activists building Sakizaya consciousness. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

There is no doubt, however, that the rectification movement has received a fillip from a more liberal political environment. "I think the political regime today is different from the old one. The government shows more respect for the rights of different peoples," Dongieman says. "Now we have our status and we can enjoy the same advantages as other indigenous tribes." After the Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2000, ending more than 50 years of rule by the Sinocentric Kuomintang, President Chen Shui-bian signed a "New Partnership Between the Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Taiwan" to redeem an election campaign promise to promote indigenous rights. Since then, three other tribes, as well as the Sakizaya, have won recognition as distinct peoples: the Tsao in 2001, the Kavalan in 2002 and the Truku people in 2004.

Being formally identified as a separate tribe has its advantages. Tribes get their own representatives in the CIP and also access to government funds for language and cultural programs. Medical, educational or other social benefits remain unchanged, however, since these are conferred on aborigines irrespective of their tribal group. In the future, if the Indigenous People's Autonomous Area Act, now being drafted, comes into force, tribes will have autonomy over the land designated to them as a result of negotiations between various bureaucracies, political interests and other tribes. And at the ceremony held to mark the ratification of the Sakizaya as the 13th indigenous people, Premier Su also instructed the Ministry of Education to include material introducing the Sakizaya in the national curriculum.

Enhancing Cultural Diversity

With one more ethnic variety added to the makeup of the population, Taiwan's cultural landscape is even more diversified. Kilang observes two different types of responses from mainstream society. On the one hand there are complaints about the total number of the indigenous tribes being changed again--people get tired of remembering how many there are and who the new ones might be. On the other hand there are more positive reactions, as many see the Sakizaya's recognition as an asset, increasing Taiwan's cultural diversity. "It is very valuable that Taiwan, being a small island, can have such a great diversity of both peoples and cultures," Kilang says.

The Sakizaya tribal development association is now preparing itself to lead the Sakizaya to an autonomous future. "We want to be autonomous, definitely," says Dongieman , now acting chairman of the association. Once the procedure for individual registration as a Sakizaya, which commenced in late February, is completed, the association will elect their tribal leader. Currently, the principal job is to identify the Sakizaya and encourage them to formally register as such. "We welcome all who have Sakizaya ancestry to register as Sakizaya, as long as one is willing to be a Sakizaya," says Dongieman. Being a minority among minorities, the Sakizaya are well aware that they need more people to join them.

Kilang is an example of willingly choosing a Sakizaya identity. His grandfather being the only Sakizaya in his family, Kilang is only one quarter Sakizaya, but has still chosen to officially register as a member of the tribe. "We have to help whoever is weaker," he says. Nevertheless, he will keep his Amis name Mayaw, given to him by an Amis psychic, which he believes has kept him in good health.

When asked how many people from the Amis they expect to see formally register as Sakizaya, Toko Saion, the son of Tiway Saion, says he thinks only 2,000 or so will do so. These newly registered tribespeople will be encouraged to share the task of language and culture restoration. Considering the generosity of the Amis toward their independence, and the survival of the spirit of their ancestors, the Sakizaya face the challenges ahead with resolve. "The most pressing matter for me is to improve my Sakizaya language skills," Bulao says, as she, along with the other Sakizaya, march out of the shadows of the past into the future.

Write to Zoe Cheng at zoecheng@mail.gio.gov.tw