Asian Indigeneities, Resilient Sovereignty, and Multiple Agencies in Taiwan and Beyond
On April 28, 2025 the Taiwan Studies Program brings together scholars collaborating with Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan and beyond, bridging Taiwan’s Indigenous Studies with Indigenous scholarship in the Asia-Pacific region. Highlighting contemporary research topics on Indigenous self-determination and agency, particularly in the current context of climate change, rapid urbanization, enhanced geopolitical tensions, and institutional colonial vestiges, this workshop seeks to bring out indigenous voices and make ways for practices and identities that adapt to Taiwan’s ever changing political and environmental landscape. By embedding the lived experiences of indigenous peoples with contemporary challenges and connections, this workshop invites reflections on environmental changes, forms of sovereignty, community resilience, and indigenous agency in Asia and the Pacific.
This workshop includes paper topics on Indigenous-led efforts in language and cultural preservation; Indigenous youth agency, self-determination, and identity in Taiwan and Japan; indigenous multispecies perspectives on urbanization and infrastructure, museum engagement with Indigenous heritage and reclaiming histories to assert cultural sovereignty; settler colonialism and diasporas across Taiwan and the Pacific Northwest; and indigenous learning in resistance, community building, partnerships, and placemaking. The goal of this workshop is to reach out issues of multiple agencies and resilient sovereignty in order to achieve indigenous solidarity with examples from contemporary Taiwan and beyond.