Liglav Awu, Child of the “Double Country”: The Clarion Voice of Indigenous Women in Taiwan

This chapter introduces Paiwan author Liglav Awu (利格拉樂·阿烏), who asserts her Indigeneity by promoting tribal unity in her militant works. Since the 1990s, Awu has brought to the fore silenced Indigenous women in the margins of a predominantly Han Taiwanese society. Echoing their feelings of alienation, she defends their place and visibility by rectifying the dominant society’s arbitrary and hegemonic discourse. Awu’s literary style, drawing upon her varied cultural heritage, is open to plurality and alterity. In her writings, personal and tribal (hi)stories are interconnected, acting as a literary bridge linking Indigenous families, nationally and internationally, as well as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. Through this chapter, readers will acquaint themselves with Awu’s literary production—from personal narratives, detailing the experiences of a child of the “double country” who grew outside of Native tribes and stories, to the testimonies of Indigenous women, their observations and knowledges—analyzed from an emic perspective. They will also be able to grasp how social and environmental issues, made manifest in the stigmatization of Indigenous women in exile on their own land, are explored and translated by Awu into a committed literature through which these women reclaim their cultures, (hi)stories, and territories.