Sydney: Paelabang Danapan, a renowned Taiwanese scholar of Indigenous peoples and culture, will hold a series of seminars in Australia from May 7 to 9 to discuss the contributions of Taiwanese Indigenous peoples to literature and culture. At the seminars, Paelabang will examine the significance of written and spoken Indigenous languages, analyzing how they have shaped and preserved the stories, traditions and identities of Indigenous peoples, according to the event page.

According to Focus Taiwan, the tour promises to be “a celebration of cultural diversity” and aims to showcase the richness of Taiwanese society through discussions on Indigenous literature, as stated by the organizers. Organizers expressed hope that the tour will open up new worlds and provide fresh perspectives for Australian audiences.

Born in 1953 into the Puyuma Tribe, Paelabang holds a master’s degree in Sinology from KU Leuven in Belgium and has taught at several universities, including Soochow University and National Taiwan University. In 2009, he was appointed minister of Taiwan’s Council of Indigenous Peoples and later served as a senior adviser to then-President Tsai Ing-wen from 2021 to 2024.

In 1993, Paelabang founded Mountain Sea Culture Magazine, the first publication in Taiwan dedicated to Indigenous literature and culture. Two years later, the magazine launched the Mountain Sea Literature Awards, the first literary prize in Taiwan honoring Indigenous authors. Among his notable publications are “Longing for Spirit,” “Constructing Ethnic Identity in a Narrow Space: Language, Culture, and Politics of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples,” and “Notes from Da Lu Wan.”

The tour is the latest installment of the “Taiwanese Bookshelves” initiative, a collaboration between the Cultural Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney and the Taiwan Film Festival in Australia since 2021, with support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, the MOC said in a statement Tuesday.