Sa’icelen as Community Strength: Indigenous women, care work and disaster justice in eastern Taiwan
Overview
Indigenous communities globally are at the forefront of developing holistic, place-based responses to the climate crisis, yet their knowledge and leadership remain systematically marginalised in mainstream environmental governance. This article examines two Indigenous-led initiatives on Taiwan’s east coast – the Amis tribe’s post-typhoon recovery and the Atayal tribe’s revitalisation of ancestral farming practices – to analyse the strategies of resistance and resilience employed by communities navigating both climate impacts and state neglect. Drawing on participatory research and interview data, we argue that these parallel struggles reveal a gendered invisible resilience: Indigenous women’s mutual aid – rooted in the Amis concept of sai’icelen (exerting collective strength) and the Atayal practice of Gaga (ancestral governance) – sustains recovery where the state is absent, yet this labour remains unrecognised.
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10.1080/13552074.2026.2694893How to cite this resource
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