In response to the news of the Want Weekly today (8) that the Baris on Austronesian Forum initiated by the Council of Indigenous Peoples was involved in infringement of rights, the Council stated that the incident was due to the cognitive differences between the two sides in the process of interpretation and communication on the decrees. For the use of terms such as “Troll” in the title, the Council found it unacceptable and responded to the contents of the report as follows:

1. According to Article 1 of Protection Act for the Traditional Intellectual Creations of Indigenous Peoples, its legislative spirit is “to protect the traditional intellectual creation of Indigenous Peoples and promote their cultural development”. The statement also revealed that, by creating “the principle of rational use for legitimate purposes in order to avoid over-protection of wisdom creation and thereby cast the social and cultural development and progress low”. Therefore, the purpose of this Act was to give consideration to both the preservation and development of culture, and the channels for promoting cultural development included strengthening the dissemination so that all sectors of the world could understand the cultural connotations of Indigenous Peoples. Thus, the Cultural Development Center affiliated to the Council was committed to training dance troupes to perform the music and dance of 16 ethnic groups of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples. Its purpose was to realize cultural dissemination and public welfare, and when compiling dance codes, they actually went to various tribal fields to collect, and the correctness of dance steps was taught by tribal people.

2. According to Article 16 of the Act, “Any use as mentioned in the previous paragraph should credit the source. However, such limitation does not apply if the purpose and method of use is unlikely to infringe on the rights of exclusive users and is not in violation of customary practices in society.” Therefore, the Cultural Development Center performed the Pawali sacrificial songs and dances of the Ciopihay class of the Chimei tribe in order to strengthen the cultural ties with the Austronesian friends through the dance performance. Before the opening ceremony, the MC read out that the performance was “the traditional annual sacrifice culture show of the Chimei tribe”, which complied with the provisions of Article 16 of the Act.