In time of perpetual crisis, the whole world is filled with sounding alarms – the oceanic islands of the Maldives are “canaries in the climate change coal mines”(註1) while “the indigenous canaries in the coal mine” plays out as an indicator of deterioration in ecology and racial politics.(註2) Taiwan has also allegedly to become “a canary in the coal mine of cyber warfare.”(註3) Canaries in a coal mine, the expression widely adopted by political articles in the English media, originated from the fact that canaries are extremely sensitive to gas, so coal miners would bring along canaries into the mine pit for the benefit of early warning of gas leakage. In a mine pit, canaries are sentinel agents.

The eagerness to hear the sounding of danger is certainly a reason for minders to take note of canaries; however, the song of these sentinel agents often come in the form of siren, which naturally lack in timbre or aesthetic appreciation. In the sound relationship between mine workers and canaries, the latter are mere “being-for-others,” prepared in case of danger but only allowing it to be heard in emergency situations.

Looking at the bigger picture, the sounded warnings in an era of political crises can be attributed to mass media’s recreation of crises into spectacles. Meanwhile, in face of recent critical response to the impact of the Anthropocene, the academic field has developed “correlational epistemology”(註4); “The Great Silence,” a collaborative work by artist duo Allora & Calzadilla and writer Ted Chiang, describes how the innocent ears of human species fail to establish an interactive sound relationship with Puerto Rican Parrots, and the artwork serves as an example of such political exploration of sound relationships.(註5) 

To break away from the current one-sided perspective of the canary timbre dilemma as seen from a coal miner’s viewpoint, we need to remove ourselves from the standpoint of a coal miner. This short article will attempt at examining the interaction between “Taiwan” and “the Taiwanese indigenous people” – both considered canaries in a coal mine – and search for potential antiphonal singing between them. Raising these kinds of questions helps us navigate pass the narrow, cybernetic signal feedback perspective among the English media, which consider canary timbre to be monotonous. Redirecting the attention towards the canary’s complex timbre concerns discussion into listening abilities.

From miners (Taiwan) to canaries (the indigenous people)

In 2016, the Taiwanese government adopted the term sbalay, a reconciliation ceremony of the indigenous Tayal people, as the keyword in producing audio files of official apology announcements in several ethnic languages to apologize, on behalf of the Taiwanese government, to the indigenous population for mistreatments they had historically suffered from the settler regimes. During the ceremony, Hu Jin-niang, a shaman from the Bunun nation used silvergrass as a medium to introduce the Taiwanese President to their ancestral spirits. The President, in turn, cited the Tayal tradition for apology, illustrating the relationship between reconciliation and truth (balay). This reconciliation event was considered by some as an opening ceremony for the debut of Taiwan’s newly formed “Transitional Justice Commission,” establishing reconciliation and truth as its core agenda.(註6)

Just earlier that year, singer Panai Kusui of Puyuma and Amis descent was invited to the President’s inauguration ceremony, yet soon afterwards, she realized that the government-propagated communication channel was non-existent. On the day of the Reconciliation Ceremony, she stood against the barricades to protest the President’s act of leading elders of each tribal community into the Office of the President to accept the apology. Panai commented that, when apologizing, it should be the culprit who comes to the victim to knock on their door, and the more appropriate venue would be a traditional territory, instead of having community elders travel to an institute symbolic of power center to accept the apology. In a traditional Tayal reconciliation ceremony, there would originally include the tribe electing an elder to perform Lmuhuw (traditional chanting of ancient tunes)(註7); however, this did not take place in the presidential office-held reconciliation ceremony. Though, on media recordings of moments during the entrance, we can still hear the cries of protest from afar, cheering sounds from the invited tribes, and voices of military police giving speeches, all rising one after another, as if substituting for the ritual of singing ancient tunes.(註8) 

Meanwhile, during the protest, Panai reissued her 1990s song Wandering. She explains that this protest dawned on her that while she originally thought of her wandering experiences as “personal wandering,” they were actually the wandering of “the entire indigenous community.”(註9) In fact, in a reconciliation ceremony deprived of singing ritual from either party and no clarification of whose ancient teachings to follow as they go forward, what lies at its core is not only the wandering of indigenous people but also the wandering of their ancient tunes and teachings.

How do government officials perceive Tayal’s ancient teachings? Currently on the Internet, we can easily find all kinds of introductions to the Tayal reconciliation ceremony. Omi Wilang – a politician of the Democratic Party and secretary of the Indigenous Mission Committee at the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan – once introduced the reconciliation ceremony as he knew it in a television show.(註10) In the chart shown in the video, the monotheistic Christianity has reshaped their animistic utux (ancestral spirits) with binary opposition and hierarchy. Such dehistoricized understanding of ancient teachings seem to be complicit with the government’s superficial reconciliation ceremony.  Perhaps, when canaries (the indigenous) sing their ancient teachings to coal miners (the Taiwanese government), it is nothing but a futile attempt – the miners’ lives are already exposed to precarity, hence any listening ability other than that for warnings is unnecessary to them.

From canary (Taiwan) to canary (the indigenous people)

According to anthropologist Mei-hsia Wang’s research on Tayal tribes, the wandering of the ancient tunes and teachings should be taken literally: even within the same tribe, there may exist multiple ancient teachings, from “one tribe one ancient teaching” to “one household one ancient teaching.”(註11) The reconciliation ceremony as interpreted by the current administration has been made into a rhetoric for modern governance. The government-angled propaganda emphasizes the etymological association between “reconciliation” and “truth” in the Tayal language because it relates to the appeal for transitional justice that is based on reviewing and critiquing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It focuses on present (DPP-established) justice and past (KMT-made) mistakes, instead of conducting an overall assessment of the long standing evils of settler capitalism.

With a few hundred-years history of missionary preaching, ancient teachings of indigenous communities have already been altered into one that operates dualism of modernity. An example of gender trouble in the face of ancient teachings proves such point: a writer of Truku descent, Apyang Imiq, penned a conversation about a child coming out to their family members – in the past, a hagay, who possesses both the male and female souls, were considered gifted with the ability to communicate with utux  (ancestral spirits); however, in today’s tribal culture, this has become synonymous with “being a sissy, or other worse names such as faggots.” Nowadays, the tribal people’s stance against their children being queer is this: The Bible (read: “ancient teachings”) forbids this, and you shall not join us in the Promised Land (read: “the land of ancestral spirits”).(註12)

In the Tayal world, there are diverse options for conflict-resolving rituals – it isn’t just reconciliation ceremonies mediated by chants and pig sacrifices. There are ceremonies that allow community members to reinforce their pact on specific responsibilities, which facilitates further organization of social groups.(註13) Additionally, Watan Tanga, a respect elder of the Tayal community, also introduced a de-weaponizing ritual –

When the other party shows willingness to contrive and reconcile, for the sake of the future generation, even at the risk of bloody conflicts, the respected elder shall consider replacing bullets with ornaments… they might have originally been intended for revenge, but after undergoing gengay, the bullets are replaced by earrings.(註14)

In this case of coal miners (the Taiwanese government) trying to listen to (reconcile with) the canary (the indigenous community), the current status still has the canary’s musical tone turned monotonous. In other words, the government makes univocal appropriation of the indigenous culture for the benefit of its own political agenda. This relationship precisely demonstrates the monophonic power dynamic in which the coal miners adopt a cybernetic “signal-feedback” structure towards the canary’s singing.

If we listen to the canary’s (the indigenous community) ancient teachings, the Tayal people’s traditional reconciliation ceremony offers us a pragmatic exemplar in the aesthetics of sound relationship. A reconciliation ceremony is not only a political and legal ritual but also a singing event – an event that is held at the river basin whether the two parties clashed, with each party chanting the other’s Lmuhuw (ancient tunes) of migration. Just as laws are cited in court, the two singers compete via chanting, each expressing their interpretation of ancient tunes (laws) to debate and mediate over their traditional territory’s location and scope. This style of decentralized singing simultaneously implicates conceptions regarding aesthetics—legality—property—nature, and the act eventually results in the establishment of a new community.