“Indigenous peoples wander in the cities. Having few dreams, special blood running in them, they don’t know if tomorrow will be the same.Indigenous peoples live in a puzzle. When hurt, they want to go back home. Always being forced to disguise their feelings, they don’t know if tomorrow will be the same. They wish to go home, wish to go home.”
—Wish to Go Home, Dakanow
The lyrics to Wish to Go Home written by aboriginal singer Dakanow are a simple yet profound description of the feelings and aspirations of many Taiwanese aborigines living in an urban environment.
According to tallies compiled by the Department of Household Registration under the Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples living in the mountains, in the plains and in urban areas stood at 32 percent, 26 percent and 42 percent, respectively, of their total population in April 2010, compared with 38 percent, 29 percent and 33 percent, respectively, recorded in April 2002. The numbers show a trend of continued migration of aborigines from tribal villages to cities in the recent past.
Forty-nine-year-old Milay Chou, for example, is from the Puyuma tribe of Taitung County, southeastern Taiwan. She left home at the age of 18 to attend college in Taipei and has not lived in her hometown since then. Still, her biggest wish is returning to her home someday, to set up an art studio or a coffee shop and live a simple life with her mother, siblings and childhood friends.
“When I was little, I often thought that one day I must leave the tribe to see the outside world,” Chou recalls. “But now that I’m getting older, I keep thinking about all my pleasant childhood memories and miss my hometown more and more.”
Like most of the families where Chou grew up, her parents lived an arduous life of farming and fishing. To help improve her family’s financial situation, she played soccer at high school and eventually won a spot on the national team, which allowed her to participate in international competitions and, more importantly, win cash prizes, as well as gain eligibility for tuition subsidies from schools and the government.
After graduating from college and working for a few years, Chou started to give serious thought to her future. She was interested in design and knew that to pursue a career in the field, she needed to seek advanced education. Hence, with her own savings and some money that her father borrowed by taking out a mortgage on their land, Chou went to Japan to major in interior design and ended up staying there for seven years. After returning to Taipei, she got a job at an architectural design firm, earning a good income.
“The death of my father hit me hard. Suddenly, I felt compelled to do something connected to my own cultural and life experiences,” Chou says. “The loving family interactions and the many totems that I saw when I was a child started to emerge in my mind one by one, inspiring me to transform them into works of art.” Thus, in 2007 Chou set up a studio and dedicated herself to painting and making handicrafts, accessories and home decorations that feature typical aboriginal images and figures, as well as abstract works that express her thoughts and feelings.
The Ketagalan Culture Center in Taipei showcases traditional costumes and artifacts of indigenous groups in Taiwan, in addition to holding regular art exhibitions. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
With the assistance of the Indigenous Peoples Commission (IPC) under the Taipei City Government, which provides her with shop space inside a Taipei metro station at low rent, Chou now runs a business selling her creations, together with pieces made by her aboriginal friends. “What I hope for is to unite Taiwanese aboriginal designers to create works that can best showcase our diverse cultures and touch people through their aesthetic appeal,” she says. “Hopefully, we aborigines can play an active role in the cultural creative industry promoted by the government.”
Chou adds that she considers herself lucky in being able to make ends meet by doing what she really likes, while many others, particularly other indigenous people, have to take whatever work is available to earn a living. Indeed, given her aboriginal ethnicity, Chou counts herself among the fortunate few to have received higher education and have her own business.
For many years, the island’s indigenous peoples have been economically, socially and politically disadvantaged. This disadvantage extends to access to a good education, which in turn means that many indigenous people find it difficult to find employment or else are forced to accept work as manual laborers to stay afloat. Tallies released by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) show that as of December 2009, the number of employed aboriginal people was between 230,000–240,000, while the number of aborigines looking for work was around 20,000. Overall, the jobless rate among aborigines was 7.31 percent, compared with the islandwide average of 5.74 percent.
Currently, there are 14 tribes recognized by the government: Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Sediq, Thao, Truku, Tsou and Yami, or Tao. Accordingly, there are about 507,000 individuals recognized as indigenous people, making up 2 percent of Taiwan’s total populace. Many of them live in Hualien and Taitung counties in the east and southeast of Taiwan. Each tribe has its own distinct language, cultural features and traditional customs, and is an essential part of Taiwan’s multicultural society.
To address the needs of indigenous groups and improve their well-being, the Executive Yuan established the Council of Aboriginal Affairs in 1996, which was renamed the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) in 2002. The CIP is the main agency responsible for handling indigenous affairs, and is devoted to the planning, formulation and execution of indigenous policies and measures pertinent to their cultures, economics, education, health, land and welfare. Many local governments also have set up their own commissions for aboriginal people, which are usually responsible for executing CIP policies, and the council also coordinates with other central government ministries to support indigenous welfare.
Furthermore, a comprehensive legal framework, the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law, was promulgated in 2005 for the purposes of protecting the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples and promoting their subsistence and development based on co-existence and co-prosperity with mainstream society. Accordingly, the government is required to provide sufficient resources and earmark an annual budget to help indigenous peoples improve their quality of life, educational level and professional skills, as well as preserve their cultures and languages.
Overall, the annual budget allocated to the CIP has grown over the last few years, for example from NT$6.2 billion (US$194 million) in 2007 to NT$7.2 billion (US$225 million) in 2010, indicating the government’s increased emphasis on aboriginal issues.
Taipei City Government’s Indigenous Peoples Commission organizes a variety of activities to help young indigenous people living in the city learn more about their own culture. (Photo Courtesy of Indigenous Peoples Commission, Taipei City Government)
Moreover, given that more and more indigenous people have relocated to cities, the CIP began a long-term development program for urban-dwelling aborigines in 1991 to help them cope with various issues they confront in their daily life by offering subsidies, low-interest loans, job training, housing, scholarships, healthcare, educational courses, employment services and legal aid services.
Sun Ta-chuan, minister of the CIP, says the main problems indigenous peoples encounter when they move into urban areas are housing and employment. Many cannot afford to buy an apartment and struggle to pay rent on limited incomes. In particular, Taiwan’s importation of labor from Southeast Asia since 1989 has affected the work opportunities of domestic indigenous peoples as local employers choose cheaper foreign workers for many labor-intensive jobs like those in the construction industry.
Sun himself is a member of the Puyuma tribe. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in Chinese literature at National Taiwan University and master’s degree in philosophy at Fu Jen Catholic University, he went to Belgium to study Sinology at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He has long been an aboriginal cultural activist and has also worked as an associate professor at several Taiwanese universities.
Concerning housing, Sun says the central government works with local governments to make a number of rent-controlled public housing units available for aborigines for up to six years. And for low- to middle-income indigenous families that rent or seek to buy their own apartments, the government offers subsidies or low-interest loans.
At Home in the City
The two cities with the largest populations of aboriginal people are the capital city Taipei in the north and Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. According to a survey by Taipei City Government’s IPC, there are currently 13,145 aborigines registered as living in Taipei City. Based on the survey, about 49 percent of them rent an apartment, 33 percent have their own houses and 16 percent live at a relative or friend’s house. In terms of aid for housing, Yang says the Taipei City Government has set aside 3 percent of its public housing in different districts for aborigines. There is a low monthly rental fee for such housing, while a monthly rental subsidy of NT$3,000 (US$94) is available for those families that earn less than NT$23,000 (US$720) a month.
Eteng Ingay, chairman of the Commission of Indigenous Affairs (CIA) of the Kaohsiung City Government, says the number of indigenous people living in that city is on the rise, with 11,364 indigenous residents registered by late 2009, compared with 10,086 in late 2006. Many of them have moved to Kaohsiung in view of the city’s greater job opportunities in the manufacturing and service sectors, he adds.
The Kaohsiung City Government leases a number of public housing apartments to aborigines at a monthly rent as low as NT$3,500 (US$110) and offers those who want to buy a public housing unit a 20 percent discount. If they are first-time home buyers, they are eligible for low-interest loans and as of this year they can also obtain a subsidy of NT$200,000 (US$6,250), both of which are provided by the central government.
Indigenous groups living in Kaohsiung hold a ceremony to pray for blessings. (Photo Courtesy of Commission of Indigenous Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government)
To help indigenous people find employment, the central government’s CIP has teamed up with the Cabinet-level CLA to provide aborigines with employment services and vocational training in various fields including computer assembly, online business management, mechanical trades, handicrafts and dressmaking.
In 2009, the central government launched a special four-year plan involving the close cooperation of the CLA and local governments to help indigenous people enter the job market, Sun adds. It is estimated that the scheme will provide 8,236 job opportunities and 4,090 vocational training opportunities by the time it ends in 2012.
Yang Hsin-yi, chairwoman of Taipei City’s IPC, says that by and large, indigenous people across the nation encounter similar problems in improving their economic situation, accessing education and conserving their traditional culture. The problems, however, become more acute for those who move to urban areas, as they also need to adapt to the fast pace of city life, which is quite different from the slow, relaxed lifestyles they have led back home. Plus, due to their generally lower educational and professional skill levels, they have more difficulty competing with Han Chinese in the job market, she adds.
In response to employment problems for indigenous people, Yang says many city and county governments allocate a certain percentage of job positions to aborigines. For example, there are now some 800 aborigines working in such positions at various agencies under the Taipei City Government. As far as her commission is concerned, 80 percent of the members of the staff are aborigines. Yang herself is a member of the Amis tribe. One advantage of employing a high number of aborigines at her agency, Yang adds, is that they have better knowledge of what indigenous groups need and can provide support accordingly.
Kaohsiung’s Eteng Ingay says his agency also addresses indigenous employment. While providing a variety of training programs for aborigines to learn practical skills, the commission offers a cash payment of up to NT$10,000 (US$312) for those that secure a professional skill certificate issued by the CLA. Plus, the city government provides commercial spaces at a few of the city’s metro stations for aborigines to sell their handicrafts and holds publicity campaigns to introduce aboriginal works of art to the public from time to time.
Emphasis on Education
Still, the fundamental solution to the problem of improving the overall status of indigenous peoples, the CIP’s Sun Ta-chuan emphasizes, is to help younger generations receive an education in the mainstream school system from primary through high schools, and on to university level and above. In this regard, the government offers subsidies and scholarships to finance education costs for indigenous students in Taiwan, as well as those who seek advanced education abroad.
Taipei City’s Yang Hsin-yi says that in the past, it has been difficult for many aboriginal parents to see that their children gain a good education because of the poor economic situation of a lot of families. Like Sun, however, Yang believes that education is key to improving indigenous peoples’ lives. She notes that the IPC provides several subsidies for education, transportation and lunches for students from preschool to university level, as well as scholarships for those that perform well academically or in other fields including sports, dance or music.
Taipei City Government’s IPC provides indigenous people with vocational training in various fields, including beauty and fashion. (Photo Courtesy of Indigenous Peoples Commission, Taipei City Government)
In Kaohsiung City, the CIA provides educational subsidies ranging from NT$2,000 (US$63) to NT$5,000 (US$156) each semester to aboriginal students studying from kindergarten up to university level, as well as offers free lunches to elementary and high school students from low- to middle-income families.
Another aspect of assistance for indigenous peoples are the many efforts centered on preserving their traditional cultures and languages. In Taipei City, the IPC is devoted to helping indigenous groups living in the city preserve their languages, Yang says. Besides sponsoring a number of Taipei-area schools to teach aboriginal language courses, the IPC has invited senior teachers from different tribes to teach their languages in 35 communities on weekends. Currently, 400 to 500 aboriginal parents and their children are taking part in the classes, she adds.
As to the conservation and promotion of aboriginal cultures, Yang says the IPC organizes an annual harvest festival, and in 2002 the city government established the Ketagalan Culture Center in Beitou, northern Taipei to exhibit traditional artifacts of different tribes, as well as hold regular art exhibitions, musical events and lectures.
Moreover, the Taipei City Government agency set up a tribal community college in Nangang, eastern Taipei in June this year to promote lifelong learning, which she sees as particularly pertinent to indigenous cultures. “At this college, we hope that indigenous peoples can learn more about their own culture, history, social system, language and old crafts including weaving and sculpture. Han Chinese are also welcome to take the courses there to gain a better understanding of aboriginal cultures,” Yang says. “We strive to promote indigenous cultures as they play a crucial role in Taiwan’s cultural development.”
Kaohsiung City’s Eteng Ingay emphasizes that helping indigenous groups living in the city conserve their cultures and languages is an imperative task for his agency. Accordingly, the CIA organizes several major annual rituals including a harvest festival and coming-of-age ceremony, together with courses introducing the significance of the events. The agency also arranges language-learning programs for people from different tribes and encourages youngsters to take the CIP’s aboriginal language skill certification exam, which also can be used for extra credit at school, thus increasing their chances of going on to higher education in the mainstream school system.
From Culture to the Classroom
Apart from offering a special venue for indigenous peoples to hold their own social gatherings and other activities, the CIA sponsors more than 50 art, music, dance and sports events each year that are organized by aboriginal groups and churches. In addition, a tribal community college has been in operation since 2003 and thus far some 200 courses related to aboriginal culture, dance, handicrafts, finance and economics, as well as industrial development have been offered, with 2,000–3,000 people having taken part in the classes.
Alice Takewatan, a member of the Bunun tribe, is the chairwoman of the Taiwan Indigenous Cultural Enterprise Development Association. She has long been devoted to the promotion of aboriginal cultures through teaching, writing, lectures, drama, fashion shows and video and TV program productions. She is also frequently invited by government agencies in Taiwan to organize exhibitions at home and overseas to showcase aboriginal artwork, handicrafts, sculpture, photographs and traditional customs and rituals.
A performance created by Alice Takewatan. The Bunun playwright endeavors to develop aboriginal cultural works, including drama performances, to increase job opportunities for indigenous people. (Photo Courtesy of Alice Takewatan)
In her opinion, the government has done a lot to assist indigenous groups, particularly in the areas of education and social welfare. It is just that some aborigines do not make good use of those resources to improve their competence and still end up working as manual laborers, Takewatan says.
“It’s time for all indigenous communities to strive to move forward rather than looking backward and continuing to argue with society about human rights and land rights,” the association chairwoman says. “They need to give more thought to how to put their distinctive cultural assets to work in an economic sense, for example, how they could get paid through their performing arts.”
Meanwhile, the government, Takewatan continues, has been slow to promote the use of aboriginal art and culture in the cultural creative industry. That, she thinks, is a great pity given that such promotion not only holds economic potential but also could serve as a form of cultural diplomacy to increase Taiwan’s visibility in the international arena.
In recent years, Takewatan says she has put considerable effort into developing aboriginal cultural industries, including organizing fashion shows and staging drama performances, as well as creating spin-off products like puppets and stationery items based on characters from the shows. She has also written several plays that feature aboriginal ballads and dances, as well as indigenous peoples’ attitudes toward nature, and hopes that her scripts can some day be adapted into 3D animations, TV programs or e-book content for wider circulation.
“My aim is to help establish a complete industrial chain [through different business sectors] to increase job opportunities for indigenous peoples. For example, to present a drama, we need to cultivate a variety of talent including the positions of director, playwright, theater manager and actors, among others,” Takewatan says. “By helping people acquire professional skills, we hope that individuals from different tribes can learn to exchange their own resources with mainstream society to better their economic and social situations, while promoting their respective cultures on a broader scale.”
The work of improving the life opportunities of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples continues through the joint efforts of a number of outstanding, ambitious indigenous artists like Alice Takewatan and Milay Chou, together with the specialized government agencies for indigenous peoples chaired by aboriginal representatives. A significant part of those efforts is focusing on indigenous communities in urban areas as they seek ways to change their destiny and look to a better future.
“I myself have many opportunities to handle important assignments and go on international missions to introduce Taiwan’s aboriginal art and culture,” Takewatan says. “I hope my experiences of entering mainstream society can inspire other aborigines.”
Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw