Situating Indigenous Resilience: Climate Change and Tayal’s “Millet Ark” Action in Taiwan
Yih-Ren Lin,
Pagung Tomi,
Hsinya Huang,
Chia-Hua Lin and
Ysanne Chen
Additional contact information
Yih-Ren Lin: Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
Pagung Tomi: Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University, Taipei 11605, Taiwan
Hsinya Huang: Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Chia-Hua Lin: English Department, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Ysanne Chen: International Business, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-22
Abstract:
Whereas indigenous people are on the frontlines of global environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and numerous other forms of critical planetary deterioration, the indigenous experiences, responses, and cultural practices have been underestimated in the mainstream frameworks of environmental studies. This paper aims to articulate a meaningful response to recent calls to indigenous and local knowledge on food as a source of resilience in the face of global climate change. By retrieving the values and practices indigenous people of Taiwan, specifically Tayal women, associate with human and non-human ecologies, our collaborative work with the indigenous community explores indigenous resilience and its relevance to indigenous cultural knowledge and global environmental concerns. Pivoting on the “Millet Ark” action, a Tayal conservation initiative of the bio-cultural diversity of millets, this study revolves around issues of how Tayal communities adapt to the climate change, how to reclaim their voice, heritage, knowledge, place, and land through food, and how to narrate indigenous “counter-stories” of resilience and sustainability. The cultural narrative of “Millet Ark” investigates indigenous way of preserving millet bio-cultural diversity and restoring the land and community heritage, inquiring into how Tayal people are adaptive and resilient to change and therefore sustainable through the cultural and social life of millets.
Keywords: climate action; resilience; bio-cultural diversity; millet varieties; adaptation; sustainability; indigenous and local knowledge; indigenous food sovereignty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10676-:d:465720
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