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Aboriginals need help to survive, official observes

An official of the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples said yesterday that remote aboriginal communities needed more support to help preserve their cultural assets and improve their livelihoods.

After an inspection tour of a Rukai tribe mountain village and the Taiwan Aboriginal Culture Park in Machia (瑪家) township in Pingtung County, the official said that he has observed that joblessness remains the most serious problem facing indigenous peoples.

He said that in remote mountain areas, only government agencies and business sectors related to agriculture, forestry and ecological preservation are likely to offer decent job opportunities.

According to government surveys, only a quarter of the some 400,000 indigenous population has moved to urban areas; while the average annual income of indigenous households is less than half that of non-indigenous households.

With the establishment of the Council of Indigenous Peoples in December 1996, the government has mapped out a series of programs to improve the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and to provide Aboriginal youngsters with better educational opportunities.

However, low education levels remain a serious problem among Aborigines, according to government surveys.

To help Aborigines preserve their cultural assets and to help their communities to prosper, the council wants to encourage the indigenous peoples to develop handicraft workshops and cultural parks.

The official said that the Taiwan Aboriginal Culture Park at Machia and the stone-working, wood-carving, weaving, ceramics and accessories workshops at the village of Sandimen (三地門) have helped preserve the traditional crafts of tribal peoples.

He suggested that more effort is needed in packaging and marketing their commodities.
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