Indigenous issues – Taiwan Insight

Who Gets to Move? Activating Tayal Ethics in International Collaboration from Taiwan

25 June 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Wasiq Silan. This article invites us to rethink individualistic academic mobility and advocates for a decolonial approach to international collaboration. Drawing on journeys to New York and Panama with Taiwan’s Millet Ark team, the author introduces Indigenous methodologies such as lmuhuw (singing map/weaving) and qutux niqan (kinship bonds). The author argues that meaningful collaboration requires moving collectively with Elders and youth, transforming travel from knowledge extraction into relational accountability.

Rooted in Motion: Multivocality of Amis Ecological Knowledge in Collaborative Museum Curation

16 June 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Su-Mei Lo. This article illustrates how collaborative curatorial practice transforms museums from static repositories into dynamic arenas of indigenous recovery and knowledge translation. By engaging Amis communities from ’Atolan to Keelung, these projects navigate sociopolitical friction and dismantle the rigid dualism separating ancestral hometowns from urban migrant spaces.

Welcoming Home Ancestral Objects: A Report of the Ki cacepeliw Collaboration

15 June 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Michel Lee. This article explores “Ki cacepeliw,” a three-year collaborative project between Sweden’s National Museums of World Culture, the National Taiwan Museum, and the Southern Paiwan community of Shizi Township. By centring on the century-old Nakahara collection at Stockholm’s Museum of Ethnography, the initiative embraces shared stewardship to reconnect descendants with their heritage. Culminating in a landmark 2025–2026 homecoming exhibition, the collaboration has breathed new life into Paiwan cultural identity, inspiring local artisans to revive and recreate long-lost traditional crafts and instruments.

From Objects to Relationships: Indigenous Collaboration and the “Engagement Turn” in Taiwan’s Museums

12 June 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Tzu-Ning Li. Shifting from studying Indigenous peoples to actively collaborating with them, museums have initiated emotionally charged “objects returning home” projects. The author demonstrates that ancestral artefacts are not passive specimens but active extensions of kinship and spirit. Ultimately, collaboration is framed as a slow, relational practice that challenges institutional authority and transforms museums into spaces for dynamic dialogue and historical justice.

Orchids Across Realms: Transnational Museum Collaboration and Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in Taiwan

9 June 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Yian Chen. This article describes the 2025 exhibition Formosa Orchids Blossom, a collaborative project between Taipei’s National Museum of History and the University of Tokyo. It explores how the orchid transcends its role as a simple flower to serve as a complex cultural lens in Taiwan. By weaving together Japanese botanical science, traditional Chinese literati art, and the sacred indigenous cosmology of the Tsou people, the interdisciplinary exhibition deconstructs rigid national narratives, modelling a decolonised, transnational approach to modern museum practice.

Reorienting Taiwan on Turtle Island: My Encounter with Emma Teng’s Taiwan’s Imagined Geography

21 May 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Jo-Tzu Huang. Emma Teng’s Taiwan’s Imagined Geography has inspired the author to rethink Taiwan through settler-colonial and imperial frameworks. Teng’s analysis of Qing travel writings reveals how geography and identity were constructed. It challenges Western-centric colonial theories and prompts reflection on Taiwan’s layered colonial histories within global human geography discourse.

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