Aboriginal artisans called on the government to take a longer-term view and extend a training program intended to help indigenous peoples transform their art and culture into profitable businesses.
The program ended earlier this month.
"It takes years to become a master in any aboriginal handicraft art. Creating jobs for Aborigines or even the Aboriginal industry with a short-term program is a pipe dream," said Liman (
Liman owns a glazed bead art studio in Pingtung County, and is also an instructor, teaching Aboriginal students handicraft skills.
Unemployment
In 2003, in a bid to reduce the jobless rate among Aborigines and improve the economies of Aboriginal communities, the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) established a "Public Service Employment Program Promoting the Aboriginal Cultural Industry."
The program, which focused on promoting Aboriginal handicrafts, employed artisans from various tribes to give training. Students in the program earned NT$800 per day during the training period.
According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior for 2003, the program created 3927 jobs for Aborigines, mostly in local governments.
Participation
According to the CIP a total of 13 counties and cities participated in the program. Additionally, more than 1,000 Aboriginal students received training through 39 handicraft classrooms, spread among participating communities.
The students, most of them middle-aged women, learned handicraft skills such as knitting or pottery-making.
Peng Te-Chen (
Handicraft industry
"With skills acquired in the program, participants can open their own workshops or sell their artwork to others. Ultimately we plan to establish an Aboriginal handicraft industry and improve the economies of aboriginal communities," Peng said, speaking at an awards ceremony to honor excellence in student handicrafts at the end of last month.
The half-year program, which ended earlier this month, was too short, Liman said.
"We have to stop the classes as the program ends. Without further plans to continue the training, both instructors and students are left in the dark. All this effort will be wasted," she said.
Another program instructor, Yawai (
"Teaching Aboriginal people handicraft skills and the rules of commerce is a long-term educational effort. If given more time and funds, I think we can help more Aboriginal students to develop better skills to support themselves," Yawai said, speaking at the awards ceremony.
Both Liman and Yawai own Aboriginal handicraft workshops which they have built into thriving businesses.
Through opening workshops in aboriginal communities and participating in the program, both hope to share their experience and success with fellow tribesmen.
Profitability
In addition to handicraft skills, they said a key element for becoming profitable is to expand a workshop to reach the level of mass-production capacity.
Liman suggested that the program should provide courses on promotion. To establish an Aboriginal industry, the government could also build tribal factories and community workshops to create more jobs, instead of simply providing training courses.
Peng said the program provides short-term financial relief to those who are out of work.
Whether or not the program will be continued still awaits a thorough review by the CIP, according to Peng.
Tourism industry
Besides handicrafts, the council is also encouraging Aborigines to develop businesses in the tourism sector, using their unique cultural heritage.
But with scant funds, the council can hardly meet the needs of a considerable number of Aborigines, Peng said.
The long-term trend of high unemployment in Aboriginal communities is also problematic. Although the Indigenous Right-to-Work Law (
According to statistics for last year provided by the CIP, the jobless rate among Aborigines was 5.76 percent, while the national average was 4.41 percent.
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