Yi-shiuan (Yayut) Chen will present proposed research exploring contested notions of property in post-colonial Taiwan. Taiwan's Indigenous peoples have faced colonization by the Qing Empire, Japan, and China, which undervalued their understandings of property integrated with relations to people, nature, and cosmos. The presentation will discuss the ontological foundations of Taiwan's current property systems, their implications for Indigenous land use and well-being, and governance initiatives to better support co-existence of Indigenous and colonizer peoples.

1. Geography & Planning
Seminar Series 2016
The foundation of subsistence or dispossession?
Exploring contested notions of property in post-
colonial Taiwan
Yi-shiuan (Yayut) Chen
The contemporary dynamic of transitional justice and
Indigenous rights in Taiwan reflects a complex history
of property, sovereignty and governance. Taiwan
Indigenous Peoples have been colonized by the Qing
Empire (1683–1895), the Japan colonial government
(1895–1945) and the Chinese Nationalist Party
government (1945–now). Under colonizing processes,
Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples’ understandings of
property, which integrate the relations with peoples,
nature and cosmos, have been undervalued or even
omitted. This presentation discusses proposed
research that will explore the ontological foundations
of contemporary Taiwanese property systems, their
implications for Indigenous peoples’ land use and
well-being, and governance initiatives that might
better support present and future co-existence of
Indigenous and colonizer peoples.
About
Yi-shiuan (Yayut) Chen is a first year PhD student in the
Department of Geography and Planning at
Macquarie University. She has been working with
Tayal People, an Indigenous group in northern
Taiwan, since 2009. Her previous research focused on
Tayal women’s ecological knowledge. She is
interested in exploring Tayal people’s customary law
and environmental governance.
12–1pm
Tuesday
24th May
W6A 107
All welcome