It has taken more than 30 years for the Siraya people to rediscover and revitalize their language and culture.
Originally published in Global Voices in Spanish
Siraya activist Cheng-hiong Talavan directed young people in the song of an ancient siraya song. Screenshot of the Onini315 on YouTube.
This publication is part of the special series Spotlight of August 2026 of Global Voices, "Indigenous rights. "This series provides a vision of the lives and experiences of indigenous peoples in order to establish links between regions, highlight indigenous experiences and tell stories of leaders, activists, community members and others. You can support this coverage with a donation.
On 30 July, the Siraya indigenous people were officially recognized by decree as the Tenth indigenous group from Taiwan. They are also the first tribal group of the plains to obtain indigenous status following the adoption of the law on the status of the indigenous peoples of the plains in October 2025.
Like other indigenous tribes in Taiwan, the Siraya society was matriarchal and its people belonged to the austronesiums, they spoke a language of their own known as sinkangwhich was recorded by romanization by missionaries during the Dutch colonial period (1624-1662).
The sirayas settled on the plains of the southwest of the main island of Taiwan long before the Qing dynasty defeated the Kingdom of Tungning (1662-1683), founded by Zheng Chenggong, loyal to the Ming dynasty, when some of the tribes were forced to relocate to the south-west coast.
The tribal group practiced the animism and had unique ritual practices to venerate the spiritual interconnection between the human and the natural world. However, his culture and language were about to disappear as a result of more than three centuries of forced assimilation, first under the Qing dynasty, followed by Japanese imperial rule and then the military dictatorship of the Kuomintang of the Republic of China.
It has taken more than 30 years for the Syraya to rediscover, rebuild and revive their language and culture. This video shows one of the few matriarchal rituals that still last:
Comparison of indigenous groups of the plains and mountains
Under the Qing dynasty (1684-1895), the indigenous people of Taiwan were divided into two categories: The "cigars" or "uncivilized barbarians" (-), who lived in the mountain areas and resisted the Qing administration, and there were also the "mature" or "civilized barbarians" (-), who lived in the plains, paid taxes and submitted to the Government. The siraya were categorized as mature barbarians.
The Qing government forced them to leave their native language, stick to the manchu rules and shave their heads, learn Chinese and adopt their names, rituals and culture.
During Japanese colonial period (1895-1945), the Japanese administrators continued to divide the autronesian indigenous people into two categories: first, indigenous people from the plains or pingpu, which together with the colonizers have, were considered native, and second, indigenous people from the mountains or takasago, which consisted of nine unique ethnic groups. The pingpu and takasago were geographically segregated by a military line that the Japanese built for administrative purposes, and the mountain regions were under military control.
After the Kuomintang, a party that ruled the Republic of China, fled to Taiwan from mainland China after its defeat in the Chinese civil war In 1949, it adopted the Japanese colonial division, which distinguishes indigenous groups as "mountain compatriots" and Pingpu people, but only those living in mountain areas were registered as indigenous people, while the Pingpu tribes were treated as common citizens.
Under the Kuomintang military dictatorship (1949-1987), through education, administrative measures and public humiliation, the Pingpu tribes were forced to assimilate the Han culture. On the other hand, mountain regions were designated as "restricted areas" whose access required special permits. In this way, the Kuomintang maintained exclusive access to tribal communities and established clientelism relations with indigenous elites - through public appointments and commercial licenses - to sustain its single party dictatorship through manipulated local elections.
In 1968, the Kuomintang government began to register the aboriginal lands of Taiwan as Aboriginal reserve land, which granted indigenous tribes rights of use and restricted the sale of land to the Chinese people. However, the legal gaps led to real estate promoters, businesses and local governments taking over land. In the early 1990s, when Taiwan began its democratization process, indigenous peoples had the space to claim their rights.
Movements for indigenous rights since democratization
Since democratization, thousands of indigenous rights movements have emerged and have brought about a number of substantial political changes. The derogatory term "of the mountains"was replaced with" indigenous people "in 1994, the system of registration of the compulsory use of the name han was eliminated in 1995, in 1996 a Indigenous Peoples Council with ministerial rank to coordinate relevant issues, legislation on the collective rights of indigenous people was adopted in 1997, and legislation on the right of indigenous peoples to education in 1998.
However, the claim of the indigenous people of the Pingpu descendants was postponed, as their ancestral lands are flat lands with potential for development. Some argued that the Pingpu had been assimilated to ethnicity with mixed marriages, while others were concerned that incorporating new indigenous members would expand the group of citizens with privileges, as the indigenous peoples of Taiwan were entitled to reserved seats in the legislature, and to social and educational benefits derived from affirmative action measures.
In 2022, with a historic ruling of the Constitutional Court, the indigenous rights of the Pingpu were recognized; this recognition was later enshrined in the law of status of the peoples of the plains of 2025. The Siraya people are the first of the Pingpu groups to achieve recognition of their indigenous status, a process that lasted for more than 30 years.
Like other Pingpu tribes, the Siraya struggle began with the claim of land rights, as they had been excluded from the registration of their ancestral territories under the policy of Aboriginal reserve land. Their protests led to legal battles and cultural movements among the Pingpu indigenous tribes, which includes the sirayas.
Among the Siraya activists, the dedication of the Talavan familywho has dedicated three generations to reviving the Siraya culture and language. The first generation, represented by Cheng-hiong Talavan, 85, founded the Tainan Pepo Siraya Cultural Association (TPSCA) in 1999 in order to rebuild the historical legacy of the Siraya people and preserve their culture with oral history and collection of vestiges. His daughter Uma Talavan and his son-in-law, Edgar Macapili, a member of the indigenous people of the Philippines, decipher the Sinkang language. To that end, they translated word for word - into English, Dutch and Bishayya (a language similar to the Sinkang) - from a siraya version of the Gospel of St. Matthew originally prepared by Dutch missionaries. The couple managed to recover 4000 terms from the Sinkang vocabulary and used the language to write children's books and educational songs. The third generation, composed of Euphone and Lici Talavan, has been dedicated to revitalizing and promoting knowledge of the Siraya culture.
These are five ancient siraya songs performed by young students:
A member of the Talavan family, under the username @ Miss5langs, stressed the importance of the recognition of the indigenous status of the Syraya through a publication in Threads:
(a) The United Nations Office at Geneva, which is responsible for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
(a) The United Nations Office at Geneva, which is responsible for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
(a) The United Nations Office at Geneva is responsible for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The recognition of the indigenous status of the Syraya does not seek to exclude anyone or generate divisions, but to ensure that the names, previously hidden by history, can finally be seen again.
I also hope that, through this [identity] restitution, more people will be encouraged to know the true history of Taiwan, to understand the path of the Pingpu peoples and the reasons why their languages and cultures disappeared, and to recognize that these peoples did not suddenly emerge: they have always been here.
Although I live abroad now, I will continue to say with pride to those around me: I am from Taiwan and I am a siraya. I do not do it for profit or for adopting a label; simply, because this has always been my name.
In addition to the siraya, the kavalan, ketagalan, taokas, pazeh, papora, babuza, hoanya and makatau groups are classified as pingpu, and are also working to request official recognition of their indigenous status.
