Indigenous Story: One Graduate, 300 Guests

Photo source: Heping Elementary School

Taiwan’s east coast is the homeland of indigenous people. Researchers believe that the native people in Taiwan are Austronesians that first migrated to Taiwan 15,000 years ago.  Nine officially recognized tribes live in the villages scattered along the coast and in the high mountains. Many of them still preserve their traditional beliefs, languages and practices. They still hunt for food in a certain season. Most of villagers have their own veggie gardens, farms, hog logs, poultry rings, or goat pens. However, the valuable tribe cultures are under the threat by the urbanization and tourism expansion.

Mini elementary school in a tribe is an example. Urbanization causes more and more young people migrate to cities. China’s outbound booming tourism not only brings tourists but also investors to buy out indigenous communities and their land. The two factors cause less and less students in the tribal elementary schools and therefore the problems of resources and quality of education in the tribes.

Photo Source: Heping Elementary School

Heping elementary school in Taitung, Taiwan is one of the mini tribal schools. Located just a few miles away from the Pacific Ocean, the Amis tribal school celebrated a graduation for their one and only graduate, Ting-Wei Chen yesterday, with 300 guests. (Amis is one of the nine officially recognized tribes). The school invited the tribe and tourists to the carnival-like graduation ceremony. Guests experienced the tribal coming of age traditions, tasted local food and tried fun activities in the farmer’s market set up in the school. At a corner of the market, real estate ads written by the students showed how the Heping community was more valuable than the real estate prices the outside investors were paying to acquire the land. The event raised the public awareness on the impact of the urbanization and tourism boom. The school will be demoted next year due to the lack of students. That means the current 21 students will have to commute between a larger, further school and their mini local branch school due to the limited educational resources. Check out the school’s facebook page for more photos.

 

As mentioned before, the east coast of Taiwan offers many outdoor activities and a great diversity of cultures. Visiting mini tribal schools is a tourism attraction to many people. If you are interested in interacting with local indigenous kids, such as teaching them easy English, a song, or playing soccer, baseball.. etc, we could help you set up a tour. Long term volunteer tours could be arranged as well.  The unique adventure would enrich both your Taiwan travel experience and local kids’ growing experiences.  Contact us today for more details.

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