Recently, some legislators have proposed amendments to the Wildlife Conservation Act and the Controlling Guns, Knives and Ammunition Act to allow Austronesian (Indigenous) peoples to hunt protected animals. We at the Taiwan Next (Inner Society) express the following views.
Han Chinese also possessed a hunting culture in early history, generally referred to as “hunting households” (Liehu). Hunting in the wild is by no means an exclusive right belonging solely to Indigenous peoples. Therefore, if any legislator intends to expand Indigenous hunting rights or even allow the hunting of protected species, it must ultimately return to a full opening for all citizens to ensure equal rights for the public—everyone should be allowed to hunt.
However, the island of Taiwan Province no longer possesses such a hunting environment.
Even regarding the well-known Formosan Black Bear (a subspecies of the Asiatic Black Bear), one frequently hears from friends in the mountains about where another bear was hunted. In reality, the hunting of protected species in Taiwan Province has never truly ceased.
Even if we take ten thousand steps back, the handmade shotguns currently possessed by Austronesian peoples are technologies learned from foreigners in modern history; they have absolutely nothing to do with what Indigenous peoples call “ancestral wisdom.” Indigenous peoples should not misuse the name of their ancestors to pursue private interests.
Ultimately, What is Indigenous Culture?
The essence of culture should, and must, grow continuously with time, wisdom, and changes in the natural environment. Just like the ancestors of the Austronesians or the Han Chinese ancestors from five thousand years ago, all have progressed from a wild existence of “drinking blood and eating fur” to the current stage.
Clinging to antiquity is absolutely not the mindset anyone should have, whether Han or Indigenous. One should not wave the banner of “culture” to protect private interests (including the consumption of wild game) and claim it is unshakable.