In a significant milestone, the Siraya people of Taiwan have won legal recognition from the government as the island’s 17th officially designated Indigenous group. In late July, the Siraya were the first Indigenous people from Taiwan’s lowland plains, or Pingpu, to gain official status under the Pingpu Indigenous Peoples Status Act. The law, passed in October 2025, offers pathways to redress their erasure as Indigenous peoples. The designation also encapsulates the Siraya’s decades-long fight for legal recognition after centuries of forced assimilation by various colonial powers. “I’ve officially announced in a Cabinet meeting that the Siraya are a legally recognized Indigenous group in Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai said on July 30 to cheers from Siraya community members. Wan Cheng-hsiung, activist and founder of the Tainan Siraya Cultural Association, shouted in Siraya, “We’ve finally come home!” President Lai Ching-te, who backed the Siraya’s fight for cultural and legal recognition during his previous tenures as mayor of the city of Tainan and later as vice president, welcomed the news. “This is a historic moment for the Siraya people and an important milestone in the pursuit of historical and transitional justice for Indigenous peoples,” he wrote on Facebook on Aug. 1, Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Jolan Hsieh, an Indigenous studies scholar at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, who’s also known by her Siraya name, Bavaragh Dagalomai, said the impact of the recognition “could be profound, but recognition itself is only the beginning.” “I see official recognition primarily as a process of restoring…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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