National Apology and Reinvigoration of Indigenous Rights in Taiwan

There has been a huge debate about the protection of indigenous rights in the context of legal reform. One of the focal points of the debate is how and to what extent the state’s legal system and social transformation construct indigenous cultural development and needs. On 1 August 2016 Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a National Apology to Indigenous Peoples, which laid out a comprehensive scheme to restore historical and transitional justice for indigenous rights. In brief, this chapter focuses on the deliberation of law and legal pluralism amongst indigenous diversity. By way of empirical research, this chapter demonstrates the legal web of the state’s legal system and its influence on local indigenous communities. Also, it explores how and to what extent indigenous customary laws have been incorporated and implemented through the state’s legal system. To conclude, the theoretical emphasis on ontology framing distinctive bodies and processes of indigenous jurisprudence, together with the possibility of collaboration and translation between indigenous knowledge and academic disciplines, will create space for postcolonial indigenous legal consciousness, ongoing dialogues and relationship-building of self-determination and indigenous justice paradigms.