Abstract :
This study investigates the complicated interplay between
indigenous and mainstream discourse in the production of Taiwanese indigeneity.
Via the case study of Syaman Rapongan夏曼藍波安, an indigenous
writer in Taiwan known for his ethnographic portrayal of his tribal culture,
I examine how the production of indigeneity in Taiwan involves not only
inscription of resistance from indigenous people but also strategic exploitations
of transnational legacies by different social groups as they struggle over
the definition of indigeneity to formulate their own specific agendas. It is the
contention of this article that the question of Taiwanese indigeneity is not
just about indigenous self-representation, that is, claiming the subject position
of the indigenous people and seeking to restore declining, oppressed
indigenous cultural heritages. The study shows that we need to go beyond
the familiar scheme of binary opposition to deal with the complexity
of the question of indigeneity. The article ends with a re-theorization of
the relationship between indigenous and new Taiwanese identity discourse
in terms of Jacques Derrida’s notion of “inheritance.”
