Good article here on a court case that could have major implications for Pingpu (Plains Indigenous peoples) rights in Taiwan. My colleague @jolan_hsieh was interviewed for the piece.
A few notes on the article. First about the language. It deserves mention that a recently discovered bible translation effectively doubled the historical material available to those revitalizing the Siraya language. More on that here. And an article in a Dutch paper. And a nice thread on the Siraya language by @joshiunn.
Second, about Marie Lin’s genetic work, it is important to note that she is one of the co-authors of a recent study which claims that the Han-Austronesian admixture probably happened in China - before migration to Taiwan.
The history of using “blood quantum” rules to reduce Indigenous claims to land coveted by colonial settlers is not a pretty one and using genetics doesn’t make it any better. Ultimately sovereign Indigenous nations should have final say over their own group membership.
