Transitional justice and Indigenous peoples in Taiwan

Professor Jolan Hsieh: "When we talk about Indigenous transitional justice, we need to look at a longer history.”

Remnants of Taiwan's political past – and the far more recent attempts to reckon with it – are scattered across its landscape.  

In the former capital, Tainan, tourists flock to the restored Anping Old Fort (安平古堡), once known as Fort Zealandia. Built by the Dutch East India Company in 1624, Anping served as the administrative centre during the four decades of Dutch rule over much of the island’s south.  

In the city’s downtown, the Hayashi Department Store, first opened in 1932 and re-opened in 2014 after years of refurbishments, stands as a reminder of the Japanese occupation that governed the first half of last century. On the building’s observational deck, bullet holes from Allied airstrikes during World War II are still visible.  

But it is the proceeding period of martial law – one of the world’s longest – for which the biggest public memorials and museums have been built. South of Taipei is the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, where visitors can see where political prisoners were tortured, tried and executed during the Kuomintang’s martial rule.  It is one of numerous “historical sites of injustice” (不義遺址場域 ) from the period of political repression known as the White Terror (a virtual tour of the site is available here).  

In a similar vein, Taipei’s biggest park was renamed the 228 Peace Memorial Park (二二八和平紀念公園) in 1996, a tribute to the victims of the 228 Incident. Generally considered the precursor to the White Terror, the massacre saw an estimated 28,000 people killed following the anti-government protests that began at the park on 2 February 1947. The park, which is over 70,000 square metres, contains numerous memorials to the victims and houses the 228 Memorial Museum. 

Sites of memorial: Fort Zeelandia, Tainan (top left); Shintoish Shrine, Hayashi Department Store, Tainan (bottom left); Jing-Mei White terror Memorial Park, Taipei (right)

Such efforts to memorialise and educate the public on Taiwan’s past are part of the government’s broader attempts to promote transitional justice. Usually understood as a government and society’s attempt to grapple with past injustices – and often to support the transition from an authoritarian regime to a democracy – transitional justice measures include investigating past events (often through truth commissions), promoting accountability, compensating and apologising to victims, and educating the public with a view to fostering reconciliation. It is hoped that these measures will ultimately prevent similar events from happening in the future.  

What do these efforts look like for Taiwan’s linguistically and culturally diverse Indigenous peoples who make up just two percent of its population and whose history has been shaped by multiple waves of political change and mass migration from the Chinese mainland?   

A display at 228 memorial Park, Taipei

Jolan Hsieh, a leading Indigenous scholar at National Dong Hwa University, explains that Taiwan’s democratic transition in the 1980s opened the space for the island’s gender, labour, environmental and Indigenous movements to bloom.  

Led by a group of university-educated elite, Indigenous Taiwanese began calling for an end to social marginalisation and being labelled lazy or not as smart as Taiwan’s Han Chinese majority. “This group of people began to say, ‘Hey, we want to have our Indigenous rights’ ...  and then, ‘We want to have our place, and we want our name rights’, so that was the beginning of the demand for Indigenous rights.”

The group found an unlikely ally in the Presbyterian Church, which, Hsieh explains, had more success proselytising among Indigenous Taiwanese than the majority Han population. Human rights-focused non-Indigenous academics also threw their voices behind the cause. 

The Indigenous Peoples' Transitional Classroom in 228 Memorial Park, Taipei (Wiki Commons license: (https://tinyurl.com/5ar4387x)

By the early-1990s, the Indigenous movement was also advocating for the return of land, sovereignty, and an end to the use of the derogatory “mountain people” or “mountain compatriots” (山胞) in favour of the collective term “indigenous peoples” (原住民族 ). The latter was finally granted through a 1997 constitutional amendment.  

Hsieh points out that Taiwan is different from many other places with a history of settler colonialism, such as New Zealand and North America, in that there was never any enduring treaty between its original inhabitants and subsequent arrivals. The movement did, however, lead to the establishment of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act in 2005, which Hsieh explains lays out key Indigenous rights.  

The Overton window for addressing historical trauma and grievances expanded further with the election of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. President Tsai issued the first official apology to Indigenous peoples on behalf of the government that August. In it she stated, “For 400 years, every regime that has come to Taiwan has brutally violated the rights of indigenous peoples through armed invasion and land seizure.”  

Former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen issued the first official apology to Taiwan's Indigenous peoples on behalf of the government in August 2016

Tsai also emphasised that true societal reconciliation and justice can only happen through dialogue and a proper understanding of Taiwan’s history as well as Indigenous cultures. Tsai concluded the apology by announcing the establishment of the Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee under the Presidential Office. Eighteen months later, the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC) was stood up to investigate the atrocities of the White Terror era.  Formally wound down in 2024, the committee’s responsibilities, such as language revitalisation, promoting greater autonomy, revising the curriculum and improving social outcomes, have been re-absorbed by other parts of the system.  

Hsieh observes that while transitional justice efforts continue, they tend to focus on issuing apologies to those (and their families) who were persecuted during the White Terror period (the TJC has also been officially dissolved, with work now being carried out by relevant government agencies). Hsieh explains that although Indigenous intellectuals and leaders were targeted during the period, it is far from the full picture. “When we talk about Indigenous transitional justice, we need to look at a longer history.”   

Other frustrations also remain.  

While the landmark Indigenous Languages Development Act was passed in 2017, granting official recognition to Taiwan’s Indigenous Austronesian languages as well as mandating government support for their teaching and preservation, implementation has proven difficult and Indigenous languages continue to be considered endangered.  

Home to the Indigenous Tao (or Yami) people, Taiwan's Lanyu Island is also the site of a controversial nuclear waste storage site

Another parallel with Indigenous experiences in the South Pacific, is the dumping of nuclear waste on Indigenous land.  Lanyu Island—also known as Orchid Island or Pongso no Tao by the Indigenous people of the island—off Taiwan’s southeast coast, is home to the Indigenous Tao (or Yami) people. It is also home to a nuclear waste storage site that some locals contend has negatively impacted their health and created a plethora of environmental problems.

Tsai’s apology directly acknowledged that nuclear waste was relocated to Lanyu and stored without consulting or engaging with Tao locals. And while a formal investigation was also launched in 2016, resulting in the establishment of a US $83.6 million compensation package, Hsieh explains that locals remain frustrated that the site is still there. “What people on Orchid Island really want is to be told the exact timeframe. ‘When are you going to remove the nuclear waste?’ No one wants that in their backyard.” 

The ancestors of the Tao people are believed to have arrived on Lanyu Island from the mainland around 4,000 years ago

Similarly, while the Basic Law provides for the development of Indigenous self-governance and autonomy, implementation remains embryonic.  

In recent years, the 228 Peace Memorial Park itself has also functioned as a physical reflection of the issues that remain unsolved. In 2017, Indigenous artists and activists decamped to the park after setting up protest outside the neighbouring Presidential Office Building. Signs outside the group’s tents called for the return of land and expressed dissatisfaction with Tsai’s government for failing to live up to its promises. In May 2024, the group announced the end of their encampment after 2,700 days. 

Despite ongoing issues, Taiwan is often pointed to as a leader in Asia for its transitional justice mechanisms. However, critics will note that transitional justice as a framework remains imperfect: quests for the truth often prove elusive – reliant on incomplete archives and memories – and there is no guarantee that reconciliation will follow. The case of Taiwan also shows that perhaps there is no way to truly untangle the past from the present. 

 The Foundation's Asia in Focus initiative publishes expert insights and analysis on issues across Asia, as well as New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the region.