Indigenous Mobility: Experiences and Narratives of Mobility and Immobility of Yami Indigenous Youth on Lanyu (Orchid Island), Taiwan

Travel, mobility and diaspora are facts of contemporary societies across the globe and their implications are profoundly important. This paper attempts to articulate the significant connections between travel, mobility and diaspora in Taiwanese indigenous Yami society. It argues that the Yami youth from Orchid Island cross the strait to urban Taiwan for diverse reasons relating to both mobile physical bodies and emotional displacement. The paper offers a range of mobility narratives as reflective accounts cultural diasporic encounters toward a deeper understanding of travel and mobilities in contemporary indigenous society. Engaging with multi-sited fieldwork between Taiwan and Orchid Island, with in-depth interviews with Yami youth, this paper explores the complexities of the forced ‘migration' phenomena of indigenous young people and their experiences and narratives of travel and mobility. It addresses issues that arise when they are ‘on the move' and feel a loss due to their emotional attachment to a place whether interpreted as home or homeland. Focusing on aspects of everyday life, this study illustrates the tensions and dynamics of travel, mobility and diaspora. It aims to open a dialogue among tourism studies, indigenous studies and mobility studies in which issues of diaspora and people being ‘on the move' are investigated.