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.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS