Unsettling the Word: Epistemic Disobedience and Sediq Mother-Tongue Biblical Reading in Settler-Colonial Taiwan

In settler-colonial Taiwan, Christian texts historically functioned within apparatuses of colonial governance to marginalize Indigenous epistemologies. However, for the Sediq people, engaging with the Bible constitutes an ongoing process of decolonial resistance. This paper explores how Sediq mother-tongue biblical translation and reading enact what decolonial theorists term "epistemic disobedience." I argue that reading the Bible in the Sediq language conceptually and materially unsettles the text, transforming it from an imperial tool of linguistic hegemony into a site for reclaiming cultural sovereignty. By analyzing specific Sediq hermeneutics, this paper demonstrates how linguistic reclamation disrupts the dominance of settler languages (like Mandarin) and Western orthodoxies. Ultimately, it illustrates how Indigenous mother-tongue reading operates as a profound political and religious act, reconstructing Indigenous identity and spiritual autonomy within the broader discourse of religion and postcolonialism.