The Story of Smangus at Students of Sustainability

This morning I gave a presentation about Smangus at the Students of Sustainability (SoS) conference. This year the conference is being held in Bendigo, which is not far from where I live in Australia. I attended because it was a good chance to reconnect with the academic world and activists in Australia. It was also the first time I have done a presentation about my research in Taiwan for an Australian audience.

SoS is an annual conference organised by the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN) which connects campus environment collectives from around Australia. I first attended SoS in 2004. Incidentally the 2004 conference was also the first time I met John Seed. I later had the chance to travel around Taiwan with John and visit some indigenous communities including Smangus.

My presentation, titled “The Story of Smangus: Indigenous Rights in Taiwan,” started with some background information about Taiwan and its indigenous peoples. I then followed this with some discussion of the Smangus community and the legal case about the right to use wood from a wind-fallen tree. As the key theme of the conference is sustainability I wanted people to know more about how the people of Smangus have used their traditional knowledge as the basis for a sustainable community. The word sustainability is often misused, but I think the people of Smangus and other indigenous peoples around the world have practiced sustainable ways of living for hundreds or even thousands of years. There are many lessons that can be learnt from them.

Indigenous issues are a major theme at SoS. The plenary on the first day of the conference was on sovereignty. Grassroots Aboriginal activists spoke about the topic. Their perspectives presented a radical challenge to the mainstream discourse on this issue in Australia. This afternoon I had the chance to further explore some of these issues in a workshop about working with indigenous communities. The workshop talked about the need for “decolonising our minds” in order to work effectively with indigenous peoples for justice.

Smangus presentation – Students of Sustainability [pdf file]

John Seed’s visit to Taiwan

I have just spent ten days accompanying John Seed on a trip around Taiwan. John is an environmentalist from Australia well known for his efforts protecting rainforests around the world and also as a philosopher of Deep Ecology. I met John at the Taoyuan Airport on the morning of 28 March. We then took the high speed train to Kaohsiung where we met Dr Lin Yih-ren who arranged John’s visit to Taiwan.

Approaching storms and millet harvest in Smangus

I went on a trip to Smangus this week. I carefully checked the weather forecast on Sunday night before I left. I was aware that Tropical Storm Lionrock and the low pressure system to the northwest of Taiwan would influence the weather during the week. However, it seemed unlikely that either of them would directly impact Taiwan. By the time I arrived in Smangus on Monday afternoon the potential tracks of the storms had changed. The low pressure system had been upgraded to a tropical storm named Namtheun and was heading for the north of Taiwan.

On Tuesday morning someone told me the police at the Xiuluan checkpoint had called several times suggesting that I leave the village. I asked a few people in the village for their advice and they didn’t seem too worried. At that stage there had only been a little light rain.  I decided to stay because I know that Smangus is a safe place. The most dangerous place to be during a typhoon is the roads and rivers. Travelling down the mountain in the middle of a torrential downpour would certainly be more dangerous than staying in the village.

Anyway with a possible storm approaching the people of Smangus took the opportunity to harvest the final field of millet for the season. A film crew from PTS (公共電視台) were there to film the harvesting for use in a documentary they are making about Smangus.

I have used some photos of the harvesting to illustrate to this blog post. The group of about twenty people moved slowly through the field. They worked efficiently but never seemed to rush.

Soon all the millet was in bundles like the one pictured above. It was then loaded onto a truck and taken back to the village. It was stored in a shed, although they will put the millet outside to dry when it is sunny.

The impending storms never eventuated. There was some rain while I was staying in the village, but nothing serious. By Wednesday morning there was bright sunshine.

Ethnoecology workshop at Smangus

On Sunday and Monday I attended a conference in Smangus. The conference, organized by National Chiao Tung University (國立交通大學), brought together a small group of anthropologists to discuss the topic of “Rethinking environment, localisation and indigenisation.” While it poured rain on the Sunday afternoon the cafe at provided a great refuge for the presenters gave their papers.

The presentations started with Dr Lin Yih-ren (林益仁) talking about the politics of the plan for the Maqaw National Park. The proposed national park covers a mountain area that is the traditional territory of the Atayal people. The social movement to promote the park developed through several stages. Initially indigenous people were not involved but an alliance between indigenous people and conservationists later developed. However, there was also another indigenous group that opposed the park. The plan for the park is now suspended but it has had an important influence on the development of ecotourism and laws related to indigenous peoples.

Jackson Hu’s paper on the fetish landscapes of the Theravada Buddhist communities in the China-Burma border region wasn’t able to attend to give his presentation, but presented via a PowerPoint presentation with a voice recording.

Kerim Friedman presented a paper on language rights in Taiwan. He looked at how Taiwan developed a place-based multiculturalism in the 1990s, based on Japanese ideas. This has led to a fragmentation of the local language market. For example, there are 43 different language tests for Austronesian languages, even though there are only fourteen officially recognised ethno-linguistic groups.

The next set of presentations were both about Amis communities on the east coast of Taiwan. Yi-tze Lee (李宜澤) talked about the development of organic agriculture in the Talampo community in Fuli (富里). Interestingly this community is known as the “dark village” (黑色部落) because it has no electricity, a name that was also once given to Smangus. Lee contrasted the organic farming practices of Talampo with those of the Chinese-speaking farmers on nearby Liushi Dan Mountain (六十石山).

Next was a presentation about the ‘Tolan community (都蘭) near Taitung. The spirit of the community was very much present as four of the five authors, all members of the ‘Tolan community, were involved in giving the presentation. They looked at the driftwood from Typhoon Morakot and how this sparked action among the young people in the community. Even though most of the young men live outside the village, they discussed the topic via their community website and this led to them taking action to assert their rights to the wood.

Anna Tsing who is a professor of anthropology at the University of California Santa Cruz was the final presenter. She is well known for her book Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection which looks at the forests of southern Kalimantan in Indonesia as a site for understanding the interplay of the local, provincial, national and global networks that shape the forests.

Tsing’s paper was on the subject of “blasted landscapes.” She looked at the ecological the harvesting of matsutake mushrooms in four countries. These mushrooms only grow on disturbed forest environments with poor soils. Hence they can be used to understand the ecological concept of disturbance. The disturbed landscapes the matsutake mushrooms grow on show how humans can live in disturbed environments. For example, in the US Pacific Northwest the mushrooms are picked by Vietnam War veterans and refugees from Cambodia and Laos. Going into the forests and picking the mushrooms is a form of recuperation for these people whose lives have been affected by war.

A number of members of the Smangus community joined us in the evening for Anna Tsing’s presentation and then gave their own presentations. Lahuy Icyeh introduced the Smangus community and explained how they developed their communal system of management. Then Kevan Berg, a Ph.D. student from Canada, who is currently doing fieldwork in Smangus introduced his research. His study is about landscape ethnoecology and seeks to understand the forest habitat classifications of the Atayal in Smangus. Finally the chief of Smangus, Icyeh Sulung, spoke to the group. He was very happy that the conference was being held in Smangus. He said that the development of ecotourism in Smangus was a way to share traditional knowledge about the environment and to educate people about the importance of environmental protection.

The skies were clear on Monday morning as the group set out on the hike to the Yaya Qparung, the grove of ancient cypress trees. The walk was punctuated by a number of stops along the way where Lahuy talked about the history of various sites. Although the walking trail is now lined by bamboo and forest, it was until a few decades ago being cultivated in some areas. Some evidence of this is still present.

At lunch before we left Lahuy pounded some millet for everyone to try. Accompanied by wild honey it tasted quite delicious. The photo above shows Lahuy displaying some of the different millet varieties that are grown in Smangus. Although millet is no longer a staple in their the diet the people in Smangus still grow some millet every year. One of the reasons for this is to preserve the different varieties. Currently they grow seven varieties and they plan to cultivate more in the future.

Smangus was a great location for the conference on the ethnoecology. There was a chance to learn from anthropologists studying ecologically related topics and also learn directly about traditional ecological knowledge in Smangus.

*For more photos see Kerim’s set of Smangus photos at flickr.

Poster presented at PNC, Academia Sinica

“The Right to Use Forest Resources: Atayal Culture and Smangus.” Poster presented at Pacific Neighbourhood Consortium (PNC) Annual Conference 2009 at Academia Sinica, Taipei, 6-8 October 2009.

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Smangus and the Atayal spirit

I visited Smangus this week to continue the research for my thesis. There were some significant changes in the village since my visit last year. The major one was the new classroom building near the main entrance to the village. Construction began in July last year and was completed in April. There are currently 12 students studying in the experimental branch of the Xinguang Primary School. The curriculum includes classes in Atayal language and traditional knowledge.

The building has a slate roof, rough sawn timber walls and a concrete foundation. Its combination of traditional materials and modern building techniques is in many ways a metaphor for the Smangus community which combines traditional Atayal culture with ideas from the modern world.

Although millet is no longer the main staple of the people in Smangus they still grow some millet each year. It was harvested recently and was being dried while I visited. Unfortunately it was too late for the peaches Smangus is famous for. The peach season had ended a couple of weeks earlier.

There was a group of young people on a trip organised through youthtravel.tw there at the time of my visit. I was able to join the activities with them. In the evening we watched the short film Msgamil: Once Upon a Time (泰雅千年) directed by Chen Wen-bin (陳文彬). This was the first film ever made in the Atayal language and tells the story of a village’s migration. It is beautifully produced and a good introduction to Atayal culture. You can learn more about it on the film’s website.

After the film there was a presentation about Atayal language and Smangus. I also saw this presentation again on the second night, although the content was a little different. On both nights they gave a lot of information about how the village of Smangus is organised. Smangus has a cooperative system where all members are paid an equal wage. There are other benefits too and students have their school fees paid and also receive an allowance. It draws on modern ideas such as the kibbutz in Israel, but also reflects the Atayal spirit of egalitarianism and teamwork.

On the second day I joined with a group to hike to the Yaya Qparung or group of ancient cypress trees. It was a beautiful morning. The altitude at Smangus means the temperatures at this time of the year are very pleasant and nothing like the extremes on the lowlands of Taiwan. The hike goes through both bamboo and forest. While there are some ups and downs there are no difficult or steep climbs. It is a 12 kilometre return journey and takes around five hours including time to appreciate the old trees.

The photo above shows the largest of the giant red cypress trees. It is 2,700 years old. The trees are in a hollow area that protects them from storms. The area has seven giant trees. Just like the ancient trees at Lala Shan they are an amazing sight.

The visit to Smangus gave me plenty more material for my thesis and even greater respect for the people there. There is so much that can be learnt from Smangus. It is in many ways a model for other indigenous communities in Taiwan and around the world.

Poster presentation at anthropology conference

“Indigenous Rights in Taiwan and the Smangus Case.” Poster presented at the Society for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA) and Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology (TSAE) conference at Academia Sinica, Taipei, 2-5 July 2009.

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First journey to Smangus

I have written about Smangus (司馬庫斯) a number of times on this blog. I then chose it as the topic for my group project in the Culture and Ethnic Structure of Taiwan class at NCCU (政大). This weekend I finally had the chance to visit Smangus and learn more about the case.

The journey began on Friday morning not by going to Smangus, but catching an early morning train to Shalu (沙鹿) in Taichung County. The first part of the trip was a visit to Providence University (靜宜大學). My classmate Ben Goren met me at the entrance to the University and we went to meet Dr Lin Yih-ren (林益仁教授) to talk about the Smangus case.