Where did the defeated natto go? Mayaw Biho returns home to build a movement
"How come you didn't get elected? You really disappointed us." "Ah, I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry."These were the first words spoken when Edaw Tefi and Mayaw Biho met, and they are an ordinary scene in his post-election life.
Thank-you gatherings turn into apology sessions: "I'm truly sorry"
Nicknamed "the very tall natto" by his people, Mayaw Biho ran as an independent candidate for indigenous legislator in the 9th term, having fought for indigenous rights for many years. Last year he tried running as an independent candidate for the plains indigenous legislator seat. After losing, he returned to Zhiluo Tribe in Yuli Township, Hualien County, where he was born, to live.
Edaw Tefi is an artist at the Necklace Coast Creative Workshop. A few years ago she returned home from the city and tried to set up a cafe on her family's traditional land, hoping to protect this deep blue bay with its beautiful gravel, shaped like a necklace, by her own actions, and to keep it from sharing the fate of other places on the East Coast -- one large development project after another and endless protests.
What she expressed to Mayaw Biho was both hope and disappointment. As an Amis, she hoped to find someone to represent them in legal terms. It was not just the necklace bay before her eyes; the right to manage the ceremonial space behind it, "Moon Cave," was also a goal the people had been actively pursuing in recent years.
The law is simply too unfamiliar to the people, though, and the road to fighting for rights is arduous. Even someone like her, young and with some understanding of the Coastal Management Act, still admitted, "I still need to understand more, but I really hoped he would win." Opinions like Edaw Tefi's can always be heard in the tribe, so it is no wonder Mayaw Biho always says, "Thank-you gatherings often turn into apology sessions."
