Tag: 內本鹿 Laipunuk

The Last Refuge and Forced Migration of a Taiwanese Indigenous People During the Japanese Colonization of Taiwan – An Ethnohistory | Journal of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

The Last Refuge and Forced Migration of a Taiwanese Indigenous People During the Japanese Colonization of Taiwan – An Ethnohistory | Journal of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

THE 1941 NEIBENLU (LAIPUNUK) INCIDENT

內本鹿事件

A CRITICAL EVENT IN THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE BUNUN

Steven A. Martin & David Blundell

Journal of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

Cite

Martin, S. A., & Blundell, D. (2022). The last refuge and forced migration of a Taiwanese indigenous people during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan – An ethnohistory. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 28(2) 206–231. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537113.2021.2011545

ABSTRACT

Through ethnohistorical studies, this paper explores social and political perspectives during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan which led to the forced resettlement of an entire indigenous society. Ethnographic life histories and translations of official Japanese police announcements are used to explore the 1941 Neibenlu (Laipunuk) Incident (內本鹿事件), a critical event in the oral history of the Bunun, a Taiwanese (Formosan) indigenous people of the southern mountains of Taiwan. We examine the reopening of Neibenlu’s Japanese mountain trail and its police stations offering new access to Bunun heritage to inform present and future generations. The study offers an innovative account of a neglected topic of indigenous resistance to imperialism, combining oral ethnography, and historical textual analysis.

Keywords: Bunun; forced migration; Japanese colonization of Taiwan; Laipunuk; Neibenlu (內本鹿); Taiwanese (Formosan) indigenous peoples

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The Last Refuge and Forced Migration of a Taiwanese Indigenous People During the Japanese Colonization of Taiwan – An Ethnohistory

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A Taiwan knowledge keeper of indigenous Bunun – An ethnographic historical narrative of Laipunuk (內本鹿), southern mountain range

A Taiwan knowledge keeper of indigenous Bunun – An ethnographic historical narrative of Laipunuk (內本鹿), southern mountain range

Asst Professor Dr Steven A Martin

Assistant Professor of Asian Studies in Sociology and Anthropology

NEW RESEARCH WITH SAGE PUBLISHING AND ETHNOGRAPHY

Faculty of International Studies | University News

Faculty of International Studies | University News | Martin, S. A. (2020). A Taiwan knowledge keeper of indigenous Bunun – An ethnographic historical narrative of Laipunuk (內本鹿), southern mountain range | SAGE Ethnography

Abstract

This paper offers an ethnographic life history account of a Bunun hunter, Tama Biung Istanda, from Laipunuk, Taiwan, based on academic research and fieldwork. Audio-visual tapes recorded by the author in Taitung County, Taiwan, were reviewed and translated alongside extant Chinese, Japanese and English sources. The study constructs a remembered life into readable coherent sequences on behalf of an indigenous peoples, many of whom now seek international recognition as part of their struggle for essential entitlements such as land rights, access to traditional hunting grounds, and other natural, legal, and cultural resources. The testimony of Tama Biung Istanda, translated into English and summarised here for future generations, provides a compelling new source of data on the Bunun heritage that can help to assist knowledge for the local and scholarly community and cultural resource management practices.

Keywords: Bunun, ethnohistory, hunting, Japanese Colony of Taiwan, Laipunuk or Neibenlu (內本鹿), Taiwanese (Formosan) indigenous peoples

Figures 1-7

Click on images to enlarge.

Figure 1: Bunun at the Asahi Police Station, Laipunuk 1933

Figure 1: Bunun at the Asahi Police Station, Laipunuk 1933 | Taiwan knowledge keeper of indigenous Bunun | Laipunuk 內本鹿 Nei Ben Lu | Dr Steven A Martin | Ethnography Research

Figure 2: Map of southern Taiwan featuring the Laipunuk watershed

Figure 2: Map of southern Taiwan featuring the Laipunuk 內本鹿 watershed | Bunun Research | Dr Steven A Martin | SAGE Ethnography

Figure 3: Map of Laipunuk villages, the Japanese cordon trail and police stations, and the 2006 Bunun root-searching expedition across the Central Range

Laipunuk Map with Japanese Police Stations and Trails | Southern Taiwan 內本鹿 Bunun Research | Dr Steven A Martin | SAGE Ethnography

Figure 4: Remains of the Japanese police station cordon trail above the Lu Ye River, Laipunuk

Figure 4: Remains of the Japanese police station cordon trail above the Lu Ye River, Laipunuk | Taiwan Bunun Research | Dr Steven A Martin | SAGE Ethnography

Figure 5: Interview setup with Nabu Istanda (left), Langus Istanda (informant’s sister, centre); and Biung Istanda (right).

Interview setup | Nabu, Langus and Biung Istanda | Laipunuk Taiwan Bunun Hunter Research | Dr Steven A Martin | SAGE Ethnography

Figure 6: Ethnohistorical Narrative Research Flow Chart

Ethnohistorical Narrative Research Flow Chart | Bunun Hunter Research | Dr Steven A Martin | SAGE Ethnography | Laipunuk Taiwan 內本鹿

Figure 7: Tama Biung Istanda (1917-2007) Taiwan knowledge keeper of indigenous Bunun | Laipunuk 內本鹿 Nei Ben Lu

Ethnography | Ethnographic narratives of a Bunun hunter from the high mountains of Laipunuk (內本鹿), southern Taiwan | Steven Martin

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank David Blundell, Elizabeth Zeitoun, and the two anonymous reviewers for helping me further my argument. Special thanks to Nabu Istanda and Tommie Williamson (1955-2017) for the years we shared during this project.

2005 Field Research

Nabu Istanda teaching an Amis student at Mamahav village in Laipunuk 內本鹿 Nei Ben Lu | 2005

Nabu Istanda | Teaching Bunun History | Laipunuk Field Research | Taiwan Studies | SAGE Ethnography | Dr Steven A Martin

Steven Martin and Dahu Istanda below Mamahav village in Laipunuk 內本鹿 Nei Ben Lu | 2005

Laipunuk Bunun Field Research | Taiwan Studies | SAGE ethnography | Dr Steven A Martin | 內本鹿
Cultural Continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), Southern Taiwan (Book Chapter)

Cultural Continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), Southern Taiwan (Book Chapter)

Chapter 8 | Cultural Continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), Southern Taiwan | Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Religion, law and state: Cultural re-invigoration in the new age | Ch. 8 – Cultural Continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), Southern Taiwan | Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Cultural Continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), Southern Taiwan | Dr Steven Andrew Martin | Taiwan Studies | Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Martin, S. A., & Blundell, D. (2017). Cultural continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), southern Taiwan (pp. 215–246). In H. Chang and A. Mona [C. Tsai] (Eds.), Religion, law and state: Cultural re-invigoration in the new age. Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines and SMC: Taipei.

Press Release | Faculty of International Studies

20th anniversary of Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

In 2014, Dr. Martin, was invited to Taiwan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines in cooperation with Academia Sinica, the foremost research institute in Taipei, ROC. The Museum offered Steven a place in their upcoming publication, a book to commemorate their 20th anniversary: Religion, Law and State: Cultural Re-invigoration in the New Age.

After three years of communication and collaboration, the Museum’s book has been published and is now available to English and Chinese readers.

About the research

Steven’s research was focused on the remote, high-mountain jungle valley of Laipunuk (內本鹿), in the inaccessible mountains of southern Taiwan, home of the Bunun tribe, the last Taiwanese headhunters.

Having lived with the Bunun tribespeople for five years, he recorded their ways of life, their songs, their traditions and their histories, as part of an oral ethnography project.

According to Steven, “Taiwan is the source of the centuries-long process of the peopling of the Pacific, the so-called ‘Pacific Rainbow’ that maps the migration of peoples, materials and languages across the islands of the Pacific, from Taiwan all the way across to Hawaii.”

Speaking for the Faculty of International Studies (FIS), Steven shared his experience:

“Their stories are the last of their kind, and it was an immense privilege to have the opportunity to document their lives.”

Martin, S. A., & Blundell, D. (2017). Cultural continuum among the Bunun of Laipunuk (Nei Ben Lu), southern Taiwan (Ch. 8) (pp. 215–246). In H. Chang and A. Mona [C. Tsai] (Eds.), Religion, law and state: Cultural re-invigoration in the new age. Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines and SMC: Taipei.

Abstract

Over the past century, the Bunun people, an Austronesian-speaking indigenous culture of Taiwan, have withstood acute marginalization resulting from outside incursion, particularly from the Japanese (1895–1945) and the Nationalist Government (since 1945). However, in recent years democratic reforms ushered in opportunities for cultural conservation and new sustainability through cultural resource management. This research is focused on a particular group of Is-bukun Bunun speakers from the high-mountain villages of Laipunuk, Yen-Ping Township, Taitung County, Southern Taiwan. It seeks to identify aspects of intersystem cultural continuum amidst acute social change induced by external pressures. The research employed the translation of rare Chinese documents and interpretation by scholars in the discipline, the recordation of oral history through video and audio devices, by in-depth interview, and through participant observation. The study found that the Bunun have demonstrated profound cultural resilience in the contexts of ritual dance, marriage, hunting, religion, and the identification of place. Cultural traditions and behaviors were often modified and adapted to fit within the cultural norms and expectations of dominant cultures, yet deep intrinsic meanings were carried forward, crossing spiritual and generational gaps. The research offers a window to Bunun epistemology and cultural systematics, exploring how indigenous peoples perpetuate their beliefs and values through internal cultural transformation; it serves to document the home-grown cultural resource management of a Taiwanese human treasure for English readers.

Keywords: Southern Taiwan, Bunun, Laipunuk, Formosan indigenous, Bunun Cultural and Educational Foundation, historical cultural continuum