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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS