Mackay's unburnt legacy: heroes-rescue-Aborigines organizing narratives in the exhibiting of Taiwan Aboriginal artefacts

Abstract

This paper is a case study of this 2001 exhibition in Taipei entitled ‘Treasures Preserved Abroad: the Dr. Mackay Collection of Formosan Aboriginal Artefacts.’ These Royal Ontario Museum owned Taiwan Aboriginal artefacts were originally collected in the late 1800s by the Canadian Presbyterian missionary George Leslie Mackay (1844–1901). The exhibition honoured the centennial of Mackay's death, because Mackay has become something of a modernizing hero to Taiwanese nationalists. The exhibition opened on 2 June 2001 with a nationally televised opening ceremony featuring former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui and other VIPs. This rescue narrative was used despite Mackay's accounts of burning the non-Christian religious objects of converted Pingpu Aborigines, which he referred to as “paraphernalia of idol worship” and his ethnocentric denigration of Atayal Aboriginal culture in his 1896 book “From Far Formosa.” Utilizing theoretical approaches from organizational communications, the paper shows how organizing narratives about rescuing Aborigines involve modernizing heroes assisting Aborigines with various difficulties or threats. These rescue narratives allow coordination among disparate agents and personnel who as micro actors speak on behalf of macro actors such as the nation or Aboriginal peoples. The exhibition was translated into several other institutional narratives including Canada nation branding, Taiwan government informal diplomacy, and corporate public relations. The article concludes with an analysis of how York University Centre for Asian Research-affiliated academics used the Mackay hero-rescues-Aborigines narratives to organize the permanent display of the artefacts at the Royal Ontario Museum.