Assertion of Indigenous Identity in the Face of Climate Change: The Works of Two Millennial Paiwan Authors

Abstract

This chapter aims to demonstrate how two Paiwan millennial authors, Tjinuay Ljivangerau and Ising Suaiyung, in focusing on climate change and the environment, contributed to a Taiwanese Indigenous literature opening a path to tribal imaginary, and thus Indigenous identity. Ljivangerau’s poem [Moving. Formosa] and Suaiyung’s dystopic short story [Crimson Earth] were written in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history. Whilst warning about the catastrophic consequences of dominant societies’ disrespect for nature, Ljivangerau and Suaiyung used this event to assert their Indigenous identity and resilience, and to create links with their international Indigenous families.We will start with a brief overview of ancestral oral stories and excerpts from early Paiwan literary works of established Paiwan authors containing ecological warnings and lessons, all paving the way for Ljivangerau and Suaiyung’s writings. We will then examine Suaiyung’s ecological plea in [Crimson Earth], and Ljivangerau’s employment of typhoons imagery to “weave” a multicultural tapestry in [Moving. Formosa]. Finally, we will illustrate how Ljivangerau and Suaiyung build bridges between Indigenous communities, offering readers worldwide “ecological tools” inherited from their ancestors’ alternate ways of interacting with nature.