Programme Recap

From Taiwan we heard from Assistant Prof. Lin Hao-Li from National Tsing Hua University who spoke with our 2021 North Asia cohort students the history and similarities between Indigenous Taiwan People and Māori such as history with land alienation, population decline and culture loss. Lee Kang Ning from the Council Of Indigenous People shared with us personal stories of his people, the Amis People, the National Indigenous Games and the Austronesian Forum. Lee explained that there are 16 indigenous groups in Taiwan that have distinct culture and unique language differences. The population of indgenous people is only 2% of Taiwan, which is made up of 573,469 people of which 214,091 are Amis, 420 Hla’alua. We also learnt about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) that began in 1982 under the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP). Taiwan indigeonous rights advocates actively participated in the initiative.

Panay Kumod, also known as Tana Takisvilainan, Tana is indigenous Amis/Bunun tribes and spoke about her experience visiting Aotearoa that inspired augmented reality tourism of her mountain and marae that are very much identical to Aotearoa marae and wharenui. Tana provides tailored cultural experiences for tourists such as hunting activities, arts and crafts as well as everyday roles of her people. She says the experiences are ideal for people 20-40 years old or you need to be fit as hiking is a way that her people use to stay connected to the land and their ancestors.

Jack Hua, General manager of Splendid Marketing Ltd and of Paiwan tribe descent explained the Taiwan indigenous people local economic development, taiwu coffee in Pingtung and the future of the indigenous industry. Their traditional economic activities include 1. Agriculture, 2. Hunting, 3. Forestry, 4. Fishery, 5. Handicrafts. The future of indigenous industry Jack shares is a cross-domain collaboration of creating value added branding, bringing young people back to the tribe, talent training, and ecology building. He says this will open the local industry into sustainability.

2021 North Asia cohort student Jason Goodwillie says - “What stood out for me was the history going back 25,000 years. From 7000 years ago there is evidence of tattooing, social organisations, self types of kingdoms and chiefs which are similar to Aotearoa Māori. The Austronanesian whānau have over 1200 different languages. There are similarities in Te Reo to their native language”.