The tourism business at Smangus is divided into accommodations and restaurants, wholly joint operated by the entire community, and accounts for 70% of community income. Let's follow Muni and learn all about the ins and outs of the tourism industry!

Collecting the Soil Accompanied by the owner of the brick kiln, the group sets off to the mine in Sado Community to collect the soil. The site is an indented pit, “the pit is indented due to the decades of soil collected by the brick kiln to make bricks, which also means that the soil we now collect is closer to the surface of the earth, making it stickier and purer,” says Afo’....

Swirling ocean surrounding beautiful islands, the Tao is not the only indigenous people in Taiwan with a marine culture, the Pangcah, Kavalan, and Pinuyumayan all live alongside the ocean, and intimate connections with the ocean can be observed in their legends, diet, song, and dance, each with their individual unique Sea Ritual traditions....

The forest ranger oversees everything in the mountains. Despite the heavy workload, Chen Mei-Yen, a Pangcah person from Taipei, tends to the forests with energy and passion every day because she sees Hualien as her hometown.

When the outside world sees indigenous singers as merely with “good vocals”, Taiwan Colors Music has already discovered precious indigenous cultures. For the past two decades, they have birthed numerous Golden Melody Award winners, putting indigenous music on a bigger stage.

34 years ago, in the significant march against child prostitution in Taiwan, Kawlo Malay called out heartily in Pangcah language to sisters in the dark alleys. After the march, the society confronted the issue of child prostitution and pushed for legal amendment to protect children and youth rights, thus finally ending the tragedy for female youth.

“I would like to bring back the female worldview, so women can be themselves again.”

In March of 2020, an unexpected foreign contestant amazed the storytelling competition held by Hualien City Office for promoting indigenous languages. Speaking Sakizaya fluently, this dark horse told a vivid story of a young man’s unsuccessful quest for a girlfriend. Although it was his first time to enter the competition, he ended up with the third place, which immediately became a topic of discussion in the circle of indigenous language promoters: There is a foreigner in Hualien who can speak Sakizaya!

The age class promotion ceremony takes place once every 3 years in Kiwit Village, youths that are about to be promoted from class 1 to class 2 put on a black skirt and eagle feather headdress, and circle the village to announce the news that they are about to be promoted. After 3 years of training, the boys are all strong in physique, their childish faces coupled with resolution in their eyes, eyes that sparkle with flame....

Chocolate Shrimp, Aaron Kitchen's signature appetizer, features shrimp sautéed with garlic and bits of chili until aromatic, cooked with high heat in Kahlú?a then drizzled with house special chocolate sauce...... Unlike your average restaurant, customers at Aaron Kitchen can see Chef Sung Chin-Lung and his two assistants busily working about in the kitchen through a large glass window. On the wall there are two Chinese characters "persevere" written in a childlike hand and framed in a wooden frame.

The name of “Kavalan people” was included in Article 2.1 of “The Indigenous Peoples Basic Law” after the indigenous name rectification but this is only applicable to those with indigenous peoples status who registered in 1956 or completed supplementary registration before 1963. For descendants of Kavalan people marked as “uncivilised savages” on the household registration books during the Japanese colonial period, the classified “Taiwanese Plains Indigenous Peoples,” are not acknowledged as indigenous peoples and their name has not really been “restored.”

“Daddy! Daddy is home!” Upon hearing the sound of the truck backing into the garage, the 5-year-old boy rushes to the door shouting in excitement. The headquarters of Genuine Indigenous Moving Company is located in Tucheng District, New Taipei City. On this day, owner Pang Jyun-Hong has already moved four houses and was completely drained, but when he hears his son, he immediately walks in and picks his boy up, no longer feeling tired at all.