By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-09-11 13:06:28 | Updated at 2026-09-11 14:49:41
2 hours ago
TAINAN, Taiwan – As a child, Taiwanese Indigenous language teacher Hanna Domok would lie to her classmates and say that her ancestors hailed from China.
Her darker skin made her look different from her peers, who called her derogatory names that meant “savage” or “barbarian”.
“It gave me an inferiority complex. So I would make things up and tell people, ‘No, no, you’re wrong, I am not who you think I am’,” the 54-year-old recalled in an interview with The Straits Times.
“I would tell them that my grandfather immigrated to Taiwan from China,” said Domok, who also goes by her Chinese name Mu Li-chun.
Her experience as a member of the Siraya, an Austronesian-speaking Indigenous group native to south-western Taiwan, is not unique.
For centuries, Siraya as well as other lowland plains – or Pingpu – Indigenous communities often kept their background a secret to avoid social stigma and discrimination; many were forced to adopt Han Chinese customs and languages and assimilate.
But things have come a long way since the late 1980s during Taiwan’s transition to democracy, following the lifting of martial law in 1987.
On July 30, after decades of activism, the Siraya people finally won legal recognition from the Taiwanese government as the island’s 17th officially designated Indigenous group. There are 26 known Indigenous groups in Taiwan, including the non-designated ones.
Taiwan’s Indigenous communities, which are traditionally divided into highland and lowland groups, make up about 2.7 per cent of the island’s 23.3 million people. They claim thousands of years of history on the island before the first foreign settlers arrived in the 17th century.
Taiwan’s first foreign settlers were the Dutch (1624 –1662) and the Spanish (1626 –1642), who built trading posts along the coast. To secure labour for farming, the Dutch encouraged the immigration of Han Chinese workers from mainland China, which marked the first significant wave of Chinese migration.
Han Chinese settlers grew to dominate Taiwan numerically, culturally and politically during the Qing Dynasty (1683 –1895), and the Indigenous groups became a minority discriminated against by the Chinese majority and forced to adopt Chinese surnames and pay heavy taxes. When the Kuomintang (KMT) government arrived from the Chinese mainland in 1949, Indigenous people were forced to adopt Mandarin Chinese and suppress their cultural customs.
There is no official data on how many people of Siraya descent are in Taiwan, but the city government of Tainan, where they historically resided, recorded more than 11,800 people as Siraya in 2016.
The Siraya are also the first group to secure recognition under the Pingpu Indigenous Peoples Identity Act, which was passed in 2025 to redress the historic erasure of Pingpu groups. The other 16 groups are recognised under the Status Act for Indigenous Peoples.
The Siraya’s historic recognition will likely pave the way for more lowland plains Indigenous communities to receive the same treatment in the future. But while the landmark ruling is cause for celebration, Siraya community leaders and activists say substantial work remains for full cultural and administrative integration.
“It feels incredible, because it’s like our identity has been returned to us,” said Domok from a Siraya-owned cafe in Tainan. “A lot more work needs to be done, but at least we can say that we have secured an entry ticket now (into legal parity).”
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te welcomed the news, having previously supported the Siraya people’s fight for cultural and legal recognition during his tenure as mayor of Tainan (2010 – 2017).
“This is a historic moment for the Siraya people and an important milestone in the pursuit of historical and transitional justice for Indigenous peoples,” he wrote on Facebook on Aug 1, Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The milestone is not merely symbolic. Official recognition provides a clear legal basis and central government funding to restore the Siraya language and protect traditional customs such as the Siraya Night Festival, which honours their ancestral spirits while being an expression of thanks and blessings.
Eligible descendants can also begin to register at household registration offices to receive Plains Indigenous status on their official documents.
“Making our status official means the world to us,” said Vukin Takalomay, 28, a Siraya rights activist and language teacher.
“At university, even members of other Taiwanese Indigenous groups would question my claim as a Siraya Indigenous person. They’ll say I cannot possibly claim such a thing if it’s not made official,” he told ST.
While highland Indigenous groups such as the Atayal and Bunun, who traditionally reside in Taiwan’s isolated mountainous areas, have been legally recognised since the Japanese colonial era (1895–1945), plains Indigenous groups have struggled to receive recognition because they were deemed to be highly assimilated into Han Chinese society.
Their perceived loss of distinct cultural markers comes from centuries of intermarriage, language shifts and cultural integration with the Han Chinese settlers they lived alongside in the lowlands.
However, Siraya language and customs were largely suppressed not by choice but by a succession of dominant ruling powers.
As far back as during Qing Dynasty rule in the late 17th century, Siraya families faced educational and societal pressure to adopt Chinese surnames and speak Chinese dialects. Then, when Japanese became the primary language of instruction in public schools under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945, the Siraya language fell out of regular use altogether, and it was declared linguistically “extinct” by 1908.
Indigenous tongues were further quelled under the KMT government, with locals subjected to the regime’s strict Mandarin-only policy.
“If you spoke anything other than Mandarin, you could get punished in class,” said Lo Chao-teng, 71, chairman of the Tainan Siraya Cultural Association.
“The teachers would record it on the blackboard to humiliate you, and you could get beatings,” he added.
Linguists and language teachers have in recent years worked to reconstruct and promote the Siraya language, one word at a time. As the Siraya have had no native speakers left for such a long time, linguists relied heavily on historical texts, including a copy of the Gospel of Matthew, a book in the Bible, translated into Siraya by a Dutch missionary during the Dutch colonial period (1624–1662).
(From left) Tamaso Chen Yu-fan, Hanna Domok, Lo Chao-teng, and Vukin Takalomay.
ST PHOTO: YIP WAI YEE
In 2008, activists published a comprehensive vocabulary glossary containing thousands of Siraya words.
“There were certain words that we kept hearing from our elders but we didn’t even realise that they were Siraya words,” Domok said. “It’s amazing being able to learn these words again as my language, and teach them to the next generation.”
A few times a week, the freelancer teaches primary school-aged children Siraya words through song in private lessons. “One of my seven-year-old students recently told me, ‘I can sing these Siraya songs by myself, I don’t need you to guide me anymore.’ That made me so happy.”
Official recognition of the Siraya is expected to provide a legal and financial foundation to expand language revitalisation programmes, building on local efforts in Tainan where multiple schools already offer classes.
Jolan Hsieh, an Indigenous studies expert at Taiwan’s National Dong Hwa University, who is also known by her Siraya name Bavaragh Dagalomai, noted the significance of learning one’s native language.
“Through learning the language, we can learn more about our history and culture, and that will make our identity stronger,” she told ST. “When you have that, more people can recognise and celebrate your group as distinct and just as valid as other Indigenous groups.”
Dr Jolan Hsieh (first from right) at an event marking the official recognition of the Siraya on July 30.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JOLAN HSIEH
That is important given that official recognition of the Siraya has led to some anxiety among other Indigenous communities over the possible dilution of government resources and benefits allocated to them, she said. For instance, there is a fear that it may become more difficult for them to secure political representation in the future.
Taiwan reserves six seats in its Parliament for Indigenous people, which are directly voted on by eligible Indigenous voters.
As the potential population of Pingpu descendants is estimated to be quite large, existing recognised Indigenous groups fear they could easily overwhelm the vote, effectively squeezing out their tribes from parliamentary representation.
At the moment, officials are working on amending laws regarding political participation, social welfare, healthcare, education and other supporting measures for the Siraya, according to the Council of Indigenous Peoples, a Cabinet-level government agency.
“There is some concern that the more Indigenous people are recognised, the more people there will be coming in to fight for a small share of resources,” said Hsieh.
“But actually I like to see it from the other perspective – the more of us there are, the more we can work together and negotiate for our collective rights.”
