Taipei Times
Date: Dec 11, 2017
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
Amis singer Panai Kusui and other campaigners yesterday planted sprouts of Taiwanese
A man surveys a collection of painted stones at the 228 Memorial Park in Taipei yesterday, where protesters have been camping out in an extended protest over the government’s handling of the return of traditional Aboriginal territory. The stone in the foreground reads “return home” in Chinese. Photo: CNA
indigenous lilies at the 228 Memorial Park in Taipei to mark International Human Rights Day and the 291st day of their campout for the return of traditional Aboriginal territory.
To protest the government’s regulations over Aboriginal lands, Panai, Bunun singer Nabu Husungan Istanda and other Aborigines have been camping outside the Presidential Office Building for 291 days.
The Council of Indigenous Peoples on Feb. 14 announced guidelines on the delineation of traditional Aboriginal territories that would restrict the application of the “traditional area” label to government-owned land, explicitly excluding private land.
The exclusion has sparked heated debate, with campaigners saying that much Aboriginal territory has been privatized and the exclusion would deprive Aborigines of the right to be part of the development of traditional land that was seized and privatized by the Japanese colonial and the Republic of China governments.
The protesters first camped on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard directly in front of the office, but after being driven away by police in June, they moved the camp to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital MRT station, which borders the 228 Memorial Park.
To mark yesterday’s commemoration, the groups invited members of the public to help plant lilies. [FULL STORY]
