Panai Kusui

Panai Kusui (Chinese: 巴奈·庫穗; pinyin: Bānài Kùsuì; Chinese name: Chinese: 柯美黛; pinyin: Kē Měidài; born 1969) is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, guitarist and social activist.^[1] Her parents are of the Puyuma and Amis tribes of southeastern Taiwan.

Panai Kusui

Music career

Panai's first album "ni-wa-wa" was released in 2000 and received an award as one of the top 10 albums of the year by the China Times.^[2]

Panai has performed at Tiehua Music Village in Taitung City, which was established by the Lovely Taiwan Foundation to promote indigenous music and culture.^[3] She also performed at the fifteenth Migration Music Festival in 2017.^[4]

In 2024, Panai won the Golden Melody Award for Best Taiwanese Album for Iā-Pô (夜婆).^[5] During her acceptance speech, Panai mentioned the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, and her comments were censored from the internet in China.^[6]

Activism

Panai supported Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen in the 2016 Taiwanese presidential election campaign, voicing her support for Tsai, whose grandmother was Paiwan. Panai sang aboriginal songs at Tsai's campaign rallies and post-election victory events, including Tsai's investiture.^[7][8] Panai, at these events, voiced the need of formal apologies to aboriginal peoples for past abuses. Elected president, Tsai fulfilled these requests and presented formal apologies to aboriginal populations.^[7]

In February 2017, Tsai Ing-wen's government declared a series of public lands as aboriginal ancestral territories.^[7] Panai denounced the moves as insufficient since it did not return lands previously taken and now owned by private entities, including notorious mines.^[7] Panai's objection was based on two principles: the right of surviving aboriginal tribes to get back their whole territories, and the request for autonomy consistent enough so aboriginal community could negotiate as equals with the government.^[7] Panai was one of the leaders of the Indigenous Ketagalan Boulevard protest concerning the delineation of traditional lands of Taiwanese aborigines.^[9] On February 23, she occupied using tents the grass ground facing the Presidential Office Building, but was moved out 100 days later, installing herself near a metro entrance, and after 600 (January 2019) had to move again to a nearby park.^[7] During the protest, Panai won an appeal against a fine levied by the Taipei City Government,^[10] and continued camping until the presidential inauguration of William Lai.^[11]

Panai Kusui has also participated in commemorations of the February 28 incident^[12] and supported the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.^[13]

Discography

• ni-wa-wa (泥娃娃) — 2000, TCM

1. 泥娃娃 Ni Wa-Wa
2. 不要不要討好 Me Myself
3. 流浪記 Wandering
4. 浮沈 Floating, Sinking
5. 捆綁 Tied Up in Knots
6. 大武山美麗的媽媽 My Beautiful Mother, Da-Wu Mountain
7. 過日子 Sometimes
8. 失去你 Gone is Gone
9. 天堂 Heaven
10. 你知道你自己是誰嗎 Do You Know Who You Are?
11. 怎會會這樣 Why？
12. 每一天 Every Day's Dream

• Pur-dur & Panai Unplugged Live — 2001, TCM

1. I'm Happy Because You're Happy
2. Ho-ai-yE-yan
3. Tied Up in Knots
4. Talking
5. Why?
6. Rice Wine
7. My Beautiful Mother, Da-Wu Mountain
8. Memories of Orchid Island
9. Talking
10. Yi-na-pa-yiu-ddia
11. Talking
12. MuMu's Blue
13. Rain and You
14. Relaxed and Happy
15. Ho-yi-na-lu-wan
16. Tai-ba-lang Folksong

• A Piece of Blue

1. 海歸 (Sea return)
2. 媽媽請你不要放心 (Don't worry mama)
3. 我 (Me)
4. Talaluki
5. 我和自己 (Me and myself)
6. 看到你的臉 (When I see your face)
7. 愛!愛!愛! (Love you!)
8. 飄 (Drifting)
9. 停在那片藍 (A piece of blue)
10. Afternoon