Land and justice from the indigenous perspective: a study on the Tayal philosophy of “sbalay”

Abstract

Balay, kbalay, and sbalay are a series of related terms in the language of Tayal indigenous people in Taiwan. They connote Tayal people’s philosophy of reconciliation which is not only for resolving conflicts in the society but also embodied in the human–land relations. This article discusses the concept of justice in the sbalay philosophy that entrusts consensus and reconciliation with the truth. Examining the recent Pyanan Cypress Tree Incident sbalay case, this article analyzes the difference between Tayal people’s value system and Taiwanese state law and discusses some of the reasons behind the land conflicts between the state and indigenous peoples. This article suggests that it is necessary to provide legal space for Tayal people to practice the sbalay philosophy and human-land relations as part of the recognition of indigenous self-determination.

Keywords:

• Tayal indigenous people
• sbalay
• land
• justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Taiwan was nominally part of the Chinese Qing Empire until ceded to Japan in 1894. Japanese colonial rule ended in 1945. The Republic of China was established after the Kuomintang (KMT) 1949 defeat in mainland China. The KMT imposed martial law on the island through 1989. Subsequently the ROC/Taiwan has transitioned into a vibrant democratic state and most inhabitants identity themselves as “Taiwanese” rather than Chinese.

2 Mudan incident of 1871 was the massacre of 54 shipwrecked Ryūkyūan sailors in Qing-era Taiwan. For the Japanese, the incident was evidence of Qing weakness and failure to extend its jurisdiction over the island. Japan sent a military force to Taiwan in retaliation for the death of “Japanese nationals.” The “Build the Road and Pacify the Aboriginals” policy of the Qing government never led to any concrete results. It was greatly impeded by the difficult terrains of the mountain region and continual resistance from the indigenous tribes. It was terminated due to the cession of Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War.

3 The incident concerned the moving and taking parts of a beech tree blown down by typhoon on the road by several Smangus people, an act that had been approved of by the tribal council. Despite the Council approval, the individuals were accused by the Forest Bureau of stealing state property. The tribal people insisted on their innocence, stating that the incident took place within their traditional territory, which gave them the right to collect wood. The lawsuit dragged on for four years until the tribal members were found not guilty in the Court of First Instance of the High Court in 2010. The complete sequence of events can be found in Icyeh (2008); Reid (2010), and Wang (2010).

4 In interviews conducted by Huang and Kuan (2013) regarding resource management in the area, many local people complained about the inefficiency of current forestry regime. They pointed out that the forest policemen usually pick on indigenous peoples’ hunting but turn a blind eye to illegal logging. Some interviewees suspected that forestry officers might be in cooperating with illegal logging groups to deliver timber down the river during the typhoon season. Other interviewees complained that their reports of suspicious incomers to local Forestry Bureau work were often ignored (Huang and Kuan 2013).

5 For example, in his writing on the Tayal way of life based on his own experience, Hetay Payan cited documentation from lmuhuw as evidence of migration histories (Payan 2002). In addition, ethnomusicologist Ling-En Lai collected recitations by elders from the groups Marqwang, Knazi, Gogan, and Msbtunux, and completed the transcriptions of the lyrics and notes (Lai 2002). Furthermore, Kwang-Po Cheng explained the content, occasion, function, and symbolism of lmuhuw. He also compared the lmuhuw in different Tayal subgroups (Cheng et al. 2018).

6 This denial was mainly due to three reasons: (1) discourses of “uninhabited land,” “beastly natives,” and “white man’s burden” which provided the foundation of legitimacy for colonization. In other words, denying the knowledge and social norms of the indigenous people is to hold this foundation intact; (2) operations of bureaucratic system and instrumental rationality which deny things that are deemed illogical; (3) ethnocentrism of the dominant culture and ethnic group in the state (Kuan 2013a, 2013b).

7 Elinor Ostrom applied the concept of “discount rate” in financial studies to refer to people’s attitude toward maintaining common property resources (Ostrom 1990).