Aborigines Saved Yet Again: Settler Nationalism and Hero Narratives
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Aborigines Saved Yet Again: Settler Nationalism and Hero Narratives in a 2001 Exhibition of Taiwan Aboriginal Artifacts Mark Eric Munsterhjelm BA, Carleton University, 1992 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Indigenous Governance Program O Mark Munsterhjelm, 2004 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ABSTRACT Drawing upon field work, mass media accounts, and Canadian government internal documents, this thesis considers how settler/Aboriginal power relations were reproduced when Taiwan Aboriginal artefacts held by the Royal Ontario Museum were used in a 2001 exhibition in Taipei to commemorate the centennial of the death of the Taiwanese nationalist hero, George Leslie Mackay (1 844-1 901). I argue that this exhibition and related Taiwan-Canada state Aboriginal exchanges have been hierarchically structured by organizational narratives in which coalitions of settler state institutions function as adept heroes who quest to help inept Aboriginal peoples deal with various reified difficulties such as "cultural loss" or "economic development." Aboriginal participants are portrayed as thankful for the heroes' sacrifices and thereby morally validate the heroes' quests and relations between settlers and Aborigines. Helping Aborigines thereby allows for moral claims by involved institutions that just@ the use of Aboriginal exchanges to advance multiple institutional agendas including Canadian government nation branding, Taiwanese government informal diplomacy, and corporate advertising. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. ABSTACT........................................................................................ .ii ... TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................. .ill LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................... ..vi NOTES ON ROMANIZATION AND LIST OF CHINESE WORDS........................................................................... .vii ... INSTITUTIONAL TITLES AND ACRONYM LIST........................ ..vi~i PREFACE.................................................................................................................... .ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................... .x DEDICATION................................................................................. .xi CHAPTER ONE: A MODERNIZING HERO AND ABORIGINES-IN TAIWANESE SETTLER NATIONALISM ..................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 1 METHODOLOGY.. ....................................................................................................... -2 THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE HERO'S CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.. ........6 THE .TUNE 2 2001 OPENING CEREMONY IN PICTURES ........................................ 7 TAIWANESE NATIONALISM'S RISE AND THE FALL OF ONE CHINA ................. 9 ABORIGINAL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS EMERGENCE AND SELECTIVE RECOGNITION ........................................................................................................... 13 SUMMARY OF THESIS .............................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER TWO: HERO-RESCUE-ABORIGINES NARRATIVES' MORALIZING AND ORGANIZING ROLES IN SETTLERIABORIGINAL POWER RELATIONS.................................... .2 i INTRODUCTION.. .......................................................................................................2 1 SETTLER HERO NARRATIVES AND ABORIGINAL PEOPLES .............................23 SETTLER STATE NARRATIVES AS IDEOLOGICAL VEHICLES........................... 25 HERO STORIES AND COALITION FORMATION ................................................... .31 NARRATIVES' ROLES IN CONSTITUTING ORGANIZATIONS ............................ 32 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER THREE: COOPERATING TO HELP ABORIGINES: RESCUE STORIES AS ORGANIZATIONAL NARRATIVES IN FOUR CONTEXTS ............................................................................................... 36 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ -36 TAIWAN'S PURSUIT OF IDENTITY ........................................................................ -37 MITSUBISHI-ABORIGINES IN "SAFE C.F. LIN'S CULTURAL PURSUIT" ........... 39 SYMBOLIC ASSOCIATIONS AND LINKAGES ........................................................ 43 DISCURSIVE CLOSURE AND DISSOCIATION ...................................................... -43 TRANSLATIONS INTO ADVERTISING AND LINKING OF MTTSUBISHI WITH TAIWAN ABORIGINES ............................................................................................. 44 RESCUE NARRATIVES AND HERO STORIES IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN TAIWAN ................................................................................................................ -46 CANADA BRAND ABORIGINES .............................................................................. 50 TRANSLATION AND ABORIGINAL EXCHANGES ................................................ 51 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER FOUR: MACKAY 2001 AS REPRODUCTION OF SETTLERlABORIGINAL RELATIONS ....................................................... 57 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 57 MAKING HEROES ..................................................................................................... 58 HISTORY AS ORGANIZATIONAL THREAT TO THE HERO STORY IN MACKAY 200 1 .............................................................................................................................. 64 SETTLER STATE HERO ORGANIZATIONAL CONSENSUS .................................. 70 TRANSLATING THE HERO STORY ........................................................................ 71 MACKAY IN CANADA-TAIWAN INFORMAL DIPLOMACY ................................ 72 COURTING THE MEDIA ............................................................................................ 75 GAINING CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP ................................................................... 79 CANADA BRAND NARRATIVES IN MACKAY 200 1............................................. 81 CANADA NATION BRANDING AND RELATED INTERNAL DFAIT POLICY NARRATIVES ............................................................................................................ 84 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 89 CHAPTER FIVE-THESIS CONCLUSIONS............................................ 91 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ -91 THEORETICAL FRAME WORK AND POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS ...................... 91 MACKAY 200 1 EXHIBITION AND SETTLER/ABORIGINAL RELATIONS........... 94 REFERENCES....................................................................................................... -99 List of Fipures 1. Council of Aboriginal Affairs Chairman Yohani Isqaqavut speaking................. 7 2 . After the eulogies, Atayal Aboriginal young people dance ............................. 7 3 . Crowd and mass media assembled to watch ribbon cutting ceremony ................7 4 . VIPs Cut Ribbon .............................................................................. 7 5. Panel at the entrance to the Mackay exhibition.......................................... 7 ... 6 . Inside the exhib~t~on.......................................................................... 7 7 . Shung Ye Museum Emblem ............................................................... 43 8. A banner outside a Shung Ye Mitsubishi car dealership in Taipei in June 1999... 45 All photographs in this thesis are by Mark Munsterhjelm. vii Notes on Romanization and List of Chinese Words In this thesis I utilize the Chinese name order of surname first followed by given names such Then Shui-bian" except when people use an English given name. This thesis utilizes the romanizations of Chinese words that are commonly used in Taiwan today and which are the forms used in most of my other primary sources and books. Therefore, I have included a list of popular Taiwan rornanizations and their pinyin equivalents. Please note that there can be several spellings of a place depending which rornanization system is used and whether it is Mandarin Chinese or Taiwanese (South Minnan language). Taiwan spelling!^) Pinyin Spelling Traditional Chinese 1. Ching Dynasty Qing Dynasty B$xJ 2. Kuomintang Guomindang 3. Cheng Ch'eng-kung Zheng Chenggong 4. Chiang Kai-shek Jiang Jieshi 5. Chiang Ching-kuo Jiang Jingguo 6. Lee Teng-hui Li Denghui Place Name 1. Kaohsiung Gaoxiong 2. Hsinchu Xinzhu 3. Taitong Taidong 4. Taichung Taizhong 5. Taipei Taibei 6. Tanshui (Tamsui, Tamshui) Danshui ... Vlll Institutional Titles and Acronym List There are a number of institutions involved in this event. There have been three different English language titles used for the Taiwan government's cabinet level department on Aboriginal affairs that was founded in 1996. Currently it is called the "Council of