ime, the Indigenous community leaders wished to implement autonomy on the basis of democracy, with  Indigenous Peoples as its subject and to divide the territories in a peaceful way. Therefore, it was necessary to call for “all the wise and well-respected Gaoshan Peoples throughout the island” to deliberate this issue together. 

Although this endeavour was viewed by the authorities as an act of rebellion, and the concept also lacked positive support from other Indigenous people, the action based on pan-ethnic self-consciousness like this fully demonstrated the Indigenous perspective and thus can be regarded an exemplar of the Indigenous collective consciousness.

Highland Indigenous Autonomy: an Invitation

The chaotic situation of Taiwan’s society had affected our mountain areas and brought various problems to the facilities of business, education, public health, and so on. As a result, we would like to propose our new concept, in the hopes of transforming the mountain areas we live in into an ideal land. Therefore, we need guidance from the government as well as support from enthusiastic non-Indigenous inhabitants, to help us examine the autonomous administration of mountain areas, which shall be with the Gaoshan zone (which indicates all the mountains) as the main subject, in order to eliminate the unrest in today’s society and to construct a better mountain area. We invite all the seniors and those with ambitions to join us. Time and location are noted on the left.

We sincerely await your attendance.

Attached is a list as an example for highland Indigenous autonomy.

Please also read the notes on the left and gather information in advance.

Note:

1. Venue: former Musha Branch of Taichung County (currently the Wushe Police Station of Renai Precinct, Nantou County).

2. Date: April 10, the 36th year of Republic of China (1947).

3. Expenses and daily necessities for travel should be prepared in advance.

4. Bring the research results on highland Indigenous autonomy.

5. Participants: two representatives per township.

Reference:

(1) Institution: if the current institutions designed for plain areas do not apply for the mountain ones, what types of institutions do we need?

(2) People of ability: if people of non-Indigenous origin living in the mountains are also included, is there an overabundance or a shortage of talented and capable people?

(3) Finance: is it sufficient enough to pay for all the expenses only with the local budget for mountain areas?

(4) Regions: where are the appropriate places from the perspective of economy, culture, and industry?

March 17, the 36th year of Republic of China (1947)

Respectfully,

Representatives of Wufeng Township, Tainan County

Yata Kazuo

Yasui Takeshi

Attachment:

1. Indigenous people, as the native Taiwanese, should play an important role in Taiwan. For the past hundreds of years, we, the Gaoshan Peoples, had always been loyal to the governments at the time. Nevertheless, we were usually disdained as uncivilized aboriginals or savages. When it came to the resort to armed forces, some of the on-Indigenous inhabitants, opportunists and revolutionaries would claim that people from the mountains were the brave or righteous strong ones in order to incite us. Thus, we became a tool for the non-Indigenous inhabitants to dodge the bullets. We were not only the poor target for attack, but also served as the scapegoat for bandits.

As a result, our fate as the Gaoshan Peoples has remained like the aforementioned for several hundred years.

2. We had been struggling with such miserable fate for a long time. Fortunately, now democracy has become the standard doctrine in Taiwan. Contemplating from the perspective of democracy and pursuing happiness for all the people in mountain areas, we, the Gaoshan Peoples, should stand together in solidarity and regard ourselves as the real key figure when defining regions through peaceful negotiation. Although this region (mountain area office as police bureau) is governed by the county mayor and other higher officials, we hope that under this premise, we can construct and develop the mountain areas with full autonomy, in order to establish a truly peaceful region for Gaoshan Peoples.

To all the wise and well-respected Gaoshan Peoples throughout the island:

We hope you can come to the place mentioned above to offer your instructions and discuss with us.