Rotorua forges new links with Taiwan

Rotorua signs friendship agreement with Taiwan’s Pingtung County focusing on indigenous links.

Rotorua signed a friendship agreement with southern Taiwan’s Pingtung County earlier this month in the hope of building exchanges between Taiwan’s indigenous people and New Zealand Māori.

The agreement was signed by Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell and her Pingtung counterpart Chou Chun-mi (周春米) during an online ceremony facilitated by Taiwan’s representative office in Auckland on Aug. 7. The agreement is expected to increase student exchanges, tourism, and cultural links between Rotorua and Pingtung.

Speaking to the Asia Media Center after the signing, Tapsell said the friendship agreement grew out of meetings she had with Pingtung’s local government and community leaders in March. Tapsell said she was invited to visit Pingtung while at an urban governance expo in Taipei, to learn about indigenous culture in the area.

The Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park in Pingtung. (Maolin National Scenic Area photo)

Taiwan’s government formally recognizes 16 different indigenous groups, and Pingtung County is home to significant populations of the Paiwan and Rukai peoples.

Tapsell said the visit included spending time at Pingtung’s indigenous cultural development centre, one of several in Taiwan set up to revive and protect Taiwan’s indigenous culture and languages. “I could see that as leaders in indigenous practices and culture, there could be some really meaningful exchanges between both of our communities,” she said.

Tapsell also said that as a Māori person, she immediately felt a strong connection with Pingtung’s indigenous people.

“You walk into their whare, their traditional houses, and you just know that this is where your ancestors came from,” Tapsell said. She said the connection she felt with Pingtung’s indigenous people, through their arts, design, and in a spiritual sense, was “incredibly powerful and moving.”

“This is why I'm very happy to support this agreement - so more people from our communities can visit each other and experience this connection.”

Members of the Pingtung County Government sign a friendship agreement with the Rotorua Lakes Council via online meeting in August. (Pingtung County Government photo)

Studies suggest Māori are distant ancestors of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Archeological and linguistic evidence has shown that Taiwan’s indigenous people began oceanbound migration from the island between 3,500 and 5,000 years ago, spreading throughout the Pacific, and finally arriving in Aotearoa thousands of years later.

Tapsell travelled to Taiwan with Councillor Fisher Wang - Rotorua and New Zealand’s youngest ever councillor - whose Taiwan-born parents emigrated to Rotorua in the 1990s.

Wang said as well as being good for Rotorua, the new friendship agreement is special to him personally, as it represents a celebration of his two cultures. He also said he was happy to have the opportunity to use his Chinese language abilities to deepen the connection between both sides.

Wang said he met young indigenous leaders when he was in Pingtung, as well as members of local government. He said he is optimistic the new friendship agreement will emulate the success of Rotorua’s other international agreements with local governments.

Fisher Wang (fourth left), Tania Tapsell (fifth left), and Pingtung Deputy Magistrate Huang Kuo-jung (fifth right) meet with other local representatives in Pingtung in March. (Pingtung County Government photo)

Rotorua’s sister city agreement with Japan’s Beppu has seen significant numbers of student exchanges between both sides, Wang said. He said he believes in the future, many students from Rotorua will also travel to Pingtung for study, and vice versa.

Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were the sole inhabitants of the island for thousands of years. Today indigenous people represent about 2.5% of the island’s population, after multiple waves of colonisation on Taiwan caused devastating effects to communities.

Indigenous communities have worked to revive their languages and cultural heritage in recent years. Taiwan’s government has also recently shown more of an interest in promoting indigenous culture, and in 2016 Taiwan’s then president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) apologised to Taiwan’s indigenous people on behalf of the government.