Disaster colonialism: indigenous tribal community responses to Typhoon Morakot in southern Taiwan

Abstract

Limited research has been conducted to date on how disaster colonialism shapes, maintains, or destroys social organisations and relationships within indigenous societies. This study was conducted within the Hot Spring Tribal Community (HSTC) of the Rukai people, one of 16 indigenous groups in Taiwan, in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot in 2009. Based on ethnographic research, the study reveals that the HSTC had endured more than a century of colonialism, resulting in an ‘unnatural’ disaster long before the storm struck the island. The impact of colonial forces intensified through a variety of post-disaster intervention strategies, spawning numerous power struggles within the modern organisations of the HSTC. This study supports the theory of disaster colonialism, which refers to the perpetuation and amplification of power conflicts through so-called natural and unnatural disasters. It also demonstrates how government intervention strategies have continued both to marginalise and exploit indigenous people via existing settler structures.