本研究以高雄市六龜地區為研究場域，訪談1937年至2005年間出生的7位男性和8位女性跨世代族群的原住民族生命敘事，同時也交織筆者自身「不山不市」的族群文化認同經驗與對話，展現當代「成為原住民」的多元圖像與其族群認同政治和文化景深。從家族遷徙、族群互動、名字展演、文化語言以及原民飲食的面向，結合臺灣社會脈絡如：集團移住、語言政策、原運等歷史事件，連結不同世代原住民個人生命記憶與敘事，剖析原住民族群體內部之個人「差異」之族群記憶和「異質」的文化認同。
本研究強調原住民族群認同，絕不是靜態的單一形式，它可能是扎根、揉雜、銜接、多重的動態過程，也可能是離散又復返原住民文化認同，也可能是「否認」、「不自我肯認」疏離的族群意識型態。筆者以「成為原住民」的生命敘事為主體，試圖刻劃族群關係、文化認同，以及原住民主體深根、流離、歸返、或尋岸和跨越族群邊界的可能形式，提供臺灣社會理解「成為原住民」的多元圖像與當代原民性。

This study takes place in the Liouguei District of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, featuring indigenous peoples’ life stories from 7 indigenous males and 8 indigenous females born between 1937 and 2005, offering cross-generational perspectives. At the same time, the researcher interweaves her own story of being “neither here nor there”, presenting the multiple ways of “becoming indigenous” in the contemporary age, as well as cultural identity politics and cultural depth of field.
The life stories are told from the perspectives of family clan migration, cultural interactions, name representations, as well as cultural languages and food, combined with social contexts from historical incidents in Taiwan such as the resettlement policy during the Japanese colonial period, language policies and indigenous movements. This study connects the memories and narratives of individual indigenous life stories through an in-depth analysis of ethnic memories from personal “differences” within indigenous communities and “heterogenous” cultural identity.
The study emphasises that indigenous cultural identity is by no means static nor singular. Indigenous identity is a dynamic process of “becoming” – it could be rooted, mixed, connected or multi-layered – sometimes as a journey of diasporic return, or a state of denial by the self. The researcher takes “becoming indigenous” as the subject of these life story narratives, attempting to characterise ethnic relations, cultural identity and potential forms of indigenous subjectivity such as in forming deep roots, experiencing displacement, returns or crossing ethnic boundaries, to provide an understanding of the diverse multiple ways of “becoming indigenous” and contemporary indigeneity to Taiwanese society.