The Siraya were officially recognized as Taiwan's 17th Indigenous group via executive decree on July 30. They are also the first plains tribe to obtain Indigenous status following the passage of the Plains Indigenous Peoples Status Act in October 2025.
The Siraya, an Austronesian people who settled in southwestern Taiwan before the Qing Dynasty took control in 1683, spoke a distinctive language called Sinckan and practiced animism with matriarchal social structures. Over more than three centuries under Qing rule, Japanese colonization, and later the Kuomintang government, Siraya culture and language nearly disappeared as a result of forced assimilation policies including mandatory Han surname registration and language suppression.
The Qing government, which ruled from 1684 to 1895, divided Indigenous peoples into "civilized" flatland groups and "uncivilized" mountain groups. The Siraya, classified as civilized, were forced to abandon their language, adopt Chinese customs, and submit to Manchu rule. The Japanese colonial period that followed continued this geographic and administrative division, while the Kuomintang, which took control of Taiwan in 1949, treated plains Indigenous peoples as ordinary Han and restricted Indigenous status to mountainous regions.
Taiwan's democratization beginning in the early 1990s opened space for Indigenous rights movements. In 1994, the derogatory term "mountain compatriots" was replaced with "Indigenous peoples," and subsequent reforms included establishing a cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1996 and codifying collective Indigenous rights in 1997. However, recognition of Pingpu descendants' claims for Indigenous status remained stalled, partly due to concerns over land development and affirmative action benefits.
A 2022 Constitutional Court ruling recognized the Indigenous rights of plains peoples, leading to the 2025 status act. The Siraya's recognition represents the culmination of more than 30 years of efforts to rediscover and revive their language and culture after centuries of suppression.
