Rev Yabu Syat is only the second indigenous Taiwanese to become moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the 136 years that the church has been there.

Yet indigenous people make up a large proportion of the church's membership - of 1,218 congregations involving 21,000 people, 531 of the congregations are indigenous. Seventy percent of indigenous people in Taiwan are Presbyterian.

Rev Yabu leads the Presbytery for one of twelve tribal groups, each of which speaks its own language, unintelligible to the rest. Using Mandarin as a common language, the groups are working towards establishing an indigenous assembly to strengthen their political voice.

The tribes have been harshly oppressed under Chiang Kai-shek's martial regime, suffering an initial slaughter of around 200,000 on his arrival in 1949, and since then being forbidden to own land. Many have chosen the deprivations of life in the mountains, in preference to battling discrimination and poverty in the cities.

But prostitution has been seen as an escape route for many village girls, and the Presbyterian church is working in partnership with overseas agencies (eg Council for World Mission) to provide alternative training to prevent and divert girls from prostitution, with some success.

Despite the strength of the Kuomintang military, Rev Syat and other Presbyterian pastors have bravely led protests to call for indigenous rights. "Three thousand people protested, demanding the return of our land rights. Lots of policemen attacked us and some people were hurt."

In 1996, Taiwanese native Lee Teng-hui became president and ended emergency rule, resulting in growing popular support for the Democratic Progressive party. Last March, the Democratic opposition party gained power for the first time, led by Chen Shui-Bian, who favours Taiwanese independence from China and is sympathetic to indigenous rights.

"The new president respects our Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, and he invited four of our ministers to become provincial governors. One has become Minister of Indigenous Affairs for central government."

"We are still struggling for our land rights, but the new government is thinking about how to return the land to indigenous people."

Rev Yabu visited Aotearoa New Zealand last November, and was keen to learn from Maori achievements here. He is interested in making further contact with Maori and other indigenous people, including those in China.

Rev Yabu's wife, Ciwas Yabu Soe, is also an ordained minister and is involved in women's rights. The couple live in Hsin-Chu county, and their e-mail address is: Pct(at)mail.pct.org.tw