Indigenous Peoples Customary Land Tenure and Governance Structure: Case Study of the Sediq Peoples

Colonization left indigenous peoples in an unequal position compared to the mainstream societies in the economic, social, political and cultural arenas in the world. This experience is no difference from the experience of indigenous groups in Taiwan. Under conventional European standards, indigenous peoples were not entitled to property rights in land because they were perceived as non-farming nomads. Based on this prejudiced assumption, indigenous peoples were merely the inhabitants, but not the proprietors of the land. Despite evidence to the contrary, the argument was based on misconceptions of aboriginal life, including the belief that indigenous peoples merely roamed over the land and were not in the habit of cultivating the soil. Nevertheless, each of these assumptions did not go uncontested.Sediq Peoples have always lived in close relationship with their land through many generations. They have, based on a number of historical, social, and religious factors, and through critical observation as well as innovation evolved a holistic and traditional knowledge of their lands. This account examines the role of such customary land tenure has played or plays in indigenous traditional governance structure.One of the main tasks of this paper is to build legal justification for an original indigenous right to land in Taiwan. This paper aims to show a customary regulatory regime in the Sediq traditional land and territory through the reconstruction of indigenous customary laws and traditional social institutions. It is thus argued that the recognition of indigenous traditional land tenure substantiates the indigenous property system and legitimatizes the claim of indigenous inherent sovereign power over traditional lands.