Premier Chang; Minister Icyang Parod of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP); Former Ministers of the CIP; Preparatory Committee Members from Taiwan's Pacific Allies; Esteemed Ambassadors; County Magistrates and Mayors; Legislators; Members of the Tao Indigenous Group from Orchid Island; Representatives of Other Indigenous Groups; Distinguished Guests; Friends from the Media:
Congratulations and good afternoon to you all!
First, on behalf of our government and people, I would like to welcome all of you to the Inauguration of the Preparatory Office of the Austronesian Forum and thank you for your passionate participation. It is a great honor to be able to meet here with distinguished guests from seven Austronesian nations, ambassadors, representatives of Taiwan's indigenous groups, and members of the Tao indigenous group, who have sailed to Taiwan from their home on Orchid Island in a richly decorated fishing vessel.
To increase cultural exchanges and cooperation among Taiwan, the Pacific region, and speakers of Austronesian languages, the Executive Yuan's Council of Indigenous Peoples has held the Austronesian Forum every year since 2002. Today, we transform this forum into a permanent organization, in the hope that it will act as a platform for communication through which closer partnerships between Austronesian peoples may be promoted.
Austronesian peoples form one of the world's most important ethnic families, and their homes are spread across nearly half of the globe. Recent research has yielded many significant discoveries concerning Austronesian peoples' history and culture. American linguist Edward Sapir observed that the more diverse the languages spoken in an area are, the more likely it is that the area is where a people originated. In a similar vein, Academia Sinica Fellow Paul Lee has advocated the position of American scholar Robert Blust that Taiwan was home to some of the earliest Austronesian peoples, and may even be where ancient Austronesian languages originated.
American linguist Stanley Starosta also held similar views. After analyzing linguistic data, including word building and sentence structure, and reconstructing the syntax of Austronesian languages, he came to the conclusion that Taiwan is of the original homes of Austronesian peoples. His findings showed that Taiwan, with an indigenous population of 480,000, has close ties to all Austronesian peoples through a shared heritage.
Cultural, linguistic, genealogical, and ethnic research and evidence indicate that all of Taiwan's indigenous peoples belong to a branch of the Austronesian family. Our indigenous peoples are totally different from the Han people who later immigrated to Taiwan and are therefore not related by blood to people in China.
Taiwan's Austronesian indigenous communities are not only the fount from which Taiwan's culture has sprung, but are also irreplaceable members of the Pacific island community. Today, we hear the eight-part harmonic singing of the Bunun people and see the cloth-weaving art of the Atayal, the harvest dance of the Amis, and the boat craftsmanship of the Tao. These are all precious pieces of the world's cultural heritage.
Taiwan has always highly valued communicating and cooperating with Pacific nations. Our nation has promoted various agricultural and economic policies, aiming at expanding its substantial, cooperative relations with Austronesian peoples in the Pacific region. We also participated in the First Taiwan-Pacific Allies Summit held in Palau last September.
During the Summit, the leaders of Taiwan's six Pacific allies and I signed the Palau Declaration, pledging to bolster cooperation in capacity building, economic development, and society and culture so as to strengthen oceanic, democratic alliances and realize comprehensive partnerships. Today's Inauguration of the Preparatory Office of the Austronesian Forum is a concrete manifestation of the promises of the Palau Declaration.
Today is also special for another reason. Thirteen years ago, on August 1, 1994, after years of campaigning by its indigenous peoples, Taiwan finally passed an Additional Article to its Constitution that placed the term "indigenous peoples" into the Constitution. That move was a historical milestone in the campaign by indigenous peoples to be called by their preferred name.
The issue of calling things by their proper name is an important one for every democracy that deals with transitional justice. After I became president in 2000, I instructed the Executive Yuan to solve problems involving the names of our indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, the number of officially recognized indigenous tribes in Taiwan has also increased to thirteen. Previous administrations, guided by a particular political ideology, had given townships home to mostly indigenous people names like "Ren-ai Township," "Hsin-yi Township," "Fu-xing Township," and "Min-quan Village." These place names were problematic as they were divorced from the history, culture, and ethnic identity of the indigenous peoples living there.
Recently, with the assistance of the Council of Indigenous Peoples, Kaohsiung County's "San-min Township" was renamed "Maya Township." In fact, this township was called "Maya Township" fifty years ago, but its name was changed in 1957 to "San-min Township" by the administration at that time. This change meant that the meaning embodied by the original name was lost. So today we are very pleased that this township's name has reverted to "Maya." This is just the first case of renaming indigenous townships. We fully support the restoration of such townships' original names, and highly commend the indigenous peoples' positive actions to seek their own identities.
Under my instruction, the Executive Yuan passed a bill in June 2005 to designate August 1 as Indigenous People's Day. We had hoped that the bill would have become a law and taken effect on January 1, 2006, but at present it remains under consideration in the Legislative Yuan. We sincerely hope that the ruling and opposition parties in the Legislature can put their biases aside and work together to pass the bill as soon as possible, so as to exemplify a respect for the rights of indigenous peoples. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind our people that Taiwan not only shares the same genealogical roots with Austronesian peoples, but is also a multiethnic, multicultural country.
In closing, on behalf of the government, I would like to welcome all of you once again to Taiwan and express my gratitude to our colleagues for their hard work in organizing this event. We have only just begun, and I hope that, through our joint efforts, the Austronesian peoples will enjoy greater prosperity and that the world may gain a greater understanding of the beauty of Austronesian culture. I wish this meeting every success and all of you health and happiness. Thank you.