51²è¹Ý

Abstract: The story of Taiwan’s small but diverse Indigenous population is often told as if it were little more than a footnote in a history of the country’s Han majority. This talk aims to turn that on its head, placing the Indigenous Taiwanese experience at the center of Taiwan’s historical journey. The struggle for Taiwanese sovereignty in the shadow of China cannot be separated from the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty under a succession of colonial powers, including the modern democratic nation-state. The talk will aim to answer the questions: How has each successive colonial regime been shaped by its interactions with Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples? What does it mean to be ‘Indigenous’ in Taiwan? And what might Indigenous sovereignty look like in a country whose own status remains so uncertain?

Bio: For the past twenty years, P. Kerim Friedman has been a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures, located within the College of Indigenous Studies at National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) in Taiwan. His research explores language revitalization efforts among Indigenous Taiwanese, looking at the relationship between language ideology, Indigeneity, and political economy. He is also an ethnographic filmmaker and visual anthropologist who writes on ethnographic film theory and Indigenous documentary film.