Thicker backtranslation in Austronesia: towards a more sustainable “sovereignty”

Scholars have discussed translations of “sovereignty” into three Indigenous minority (or minoritized) languages in Austronesia: Tagalog, Hawaiian, and Māori. This article discusses a fourth such translation, into Seediq, a Formosan Austronesian language that is spoken in Taiwan. The discussions of these four translations are presented as “thicker backtranslations” of “sovereignty” that should thicken the concept by connecting it with Austronesian analogues. Such Austronesian “sovereignties” developed on islands that, being relatively isolated in precolonial times, were likely sites for conceptual evolution, including of restrictions on the exploitation of resources in comparatively self-contained ecosystems. The thickening of “sovereignty” through its backtranslation should therefore make the concept more environmentally sustainable. More generally, “thicker backtranslation” suggests a new way of understanding “thick translation”, through the metaphor of a web, as well as “backtranslation”, as a model for the inclusion of speakers of minority or minoritized languages in debates about Anthropocene-era issues like global warming.