An application by Papua New Guinea (PNG) to join the Austronesian Forum was approved at an executive council meeting at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Monday, while Canada and Australia joined as observers.
The meeting, attended by diplomats from 14 nations and chaired by Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Icyang Parod, also agreed that next year’s meeting would be hosted by the Marshall Islands.
Launched in 2002, the forum began formal collaborative work with 12 Pacific island nations in 2018.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The forum’s headquarters was inaugurated in Palau on Sept. 30 last year at its annual executive council meeting.
“In that meeting, it was decided to hold the Austronesian Forum and the executive council meeting in Hawaii in June this year,” Icyang said. “The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year meant that it was decided to hold the forum in Taipei this year.”
The council held a videoconference with the headquarters, where it was joined by Palauan Queen Bilung Gloria Gibbon-Salii.
Icyang reported to the council on the results of last year’s International Indigenous Economic Development Forum in Taoyuan, which hosted 29 speakers from nine nations, as well as this year’s Cultivation Program of Young Talents for International Affairs at Chiayi County’s Saviki Village (山美部落), which hosted nine Taiwanese and 12 visiting Austronesians.
Palauan delegates at the meeting said that they wanted to learn from Taiwan’s experience of publishing of Aboriginal language dictionaries, as well as the education system’s mother-tongue language classes.
“Taiwan’s Aborigines also suffered an erosion of their languages, but President Tsai Ing-wei (蔡英文) prioritized government measures to restore mother tongues through programs in schools, at home and in the communities through the passing of Indigenous Languages Development Act (原住民族語言發展法) three years ago, which has begun to bear fruit,” Icyang said.
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