After the rapidly moving age of indigenous movements, buka．makakaruwang left everything behind and returned to his indigenous community. From the hot-headed youth carrying a coffin in protest, he turned to work for the church for almost two decades. Now he is the indigenous language promoter in his community, taking elders and children on a journey of learning to use their own language again, and retrieving the culture and dignity of their people.

“We can’t stick to the echo chamber and refuse to change the status quo. We indigenous people, a minority group that accounts for only 2.4% of the total number of Taiwan, must take the initiative to open dialogue with the other 97.6% of the majority. Only by doing so will there be possibilities for changes to happen.”

Hla’alua is one of the endangered indigenous languages in Taiwan. The language and culture of the Hla’alua are on the verge of being lost due to its sparse population. But thanks to the unceasing efforts of amalanamahlʉ salapuana, the 72 years old village elder who initiated the Hla’alua revitalization project more than a decade ago, the language has been passed on to the next generation, heading toward a promising future of revitalization.

In the early indigenous society, armed conflicts sometimes occur between different ethnic groups and villages. In order to protect the village and assume responsibility for public affairs in the village, indigenous peoples developed an age class system where responsibilities and obligations in the village are distributed amongst the males according to age. Boys in the village join the age class at around 10 years of age. In this organization, they receive strict cultural education and physical training......

At noon, as the bell rang at Lanyu°¶s Yayu Elementary School, the schoolchildren walked out of classrooms one after another and lined up in the hallway for the school lunch. On the cart were fried rice, scrambled eggs, stirred-fried bok choy, and radish soup. But there were no fish and taro, the traditional staple foods of the Tao people native to the island. ...

Originally settled down on Lanyang Plain, the majority of Kavalan people relocated on Huatung Coast after invaded by non-indigenous peoples and were often mistakened as Pangcah people. Now, Kavalan has been officially recognized by the government as the members of 11th indigenous community but for Kavalan people, they have not found their own name.

Source: Council of Indigenous People “108年第1季原住民就業狀況調查報告書”

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