The promotion of Aboriginal culture and development of the tribal tourist business have gotten people to pay more attention to Aboriginal communities. However, showcasing Aboriginal culture has a negative impact on the development of Aboriginal education, aboriginal rights advocates said at a forum yesterday.
"The so-called Aboriginal culture industry is manipulated by the government. Even worse, Aboriginal intellectuals fail to interpret the cultural or historical background hidden in government-held activities or festivals," said Council of Indigenous Peoples Vice Chairman Pasuya Poitsonu (浦忠成).
"What the media reports and what the public receives is a superficial showcase of our culture," Pasuya said.
The 2004 Aboriginal issues forum, held by the Millet Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting Aboriginal rights, drew Aboriginal experts to discuss issues which concern the community.
Tibusungu (
"Many Aboriginal schools put more effort into teaching Aboriginal dance, music or handicrafts classes now to promote Aboriginal culture," Tibusungu said. "However, students suffer."
According to Tibusungu, holding Aboriginal ceremonies or cultural-related activities seem to have taken priority at many Aboriginal schools over providing better education.
"The unbalanced distribution of financial and teaching resources has been one of the obstacles of Aboriginal education, even with the passage of the Aboriginal Education Act (原住民族教育法) in 1998. But we are too busy promoting Aboriginal culture to examine the issues," he said.
Tibusungu said that the Aborigines have been too passive in exercising their right to receive better education.
"Aboriginal language courses, for example, make up only about 3 percent of the total classes per semester. A poor curriculum and a lack of qualified teachers also hold back the development of Aboriginal language education," Tibusungu said.
Since the beginning of the Nine-Year Educational Program launched in 2001, the Ministry of Education has added Aboriginal languages classes as required classes in elementary schools. According to the program, all the cities and counties with Aboriginal students need to prepare Aboriginal language classes.
Voyu (
Abuwu, a member of the Kaohsiung Aboriginal Woman Sustainable Development Association, said that the government's efforts to promote Aboriginal culture stay on a superficial level and do not really help the public better understand the group.
"Every tribal festival represents a piece of the tribe's history," Abuwu said. "But often what the public remembers through tribal festivals or Aboriginal cultural events is the food or the dance, instead of learning about the background of those ceremonies."
Pasuya urged the Aboriginal community to play a more active role and exercise its right to decide on its own matters.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we