Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

The Council of Indigenous Peoples held the 13th Taiwan Indigenous Students Cultural Exchange Program (TISCEP) this year. The destination was the Vancouver region in Canada's most western province - British Columbia. eRenlai's mother organisation, the Taipei Ricci Institute was the organising committee. In contrast with previous years, the students had a more central role, submitting a proposal for the goals and program of the exchange trip. In eRenlai's December Focus we will bring you accounts of the trip from the students who took part, along with a mini-documentary in eight parts, which documents their journey from start to finish..

We begin with an interview with the director of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), Ta-chuan...

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Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Change is in the Air, Twenty Golden Years

From the 1990s, the concept of multiculturalism gradually took shape, as Taiwan amended its constitution and underwent social changes. 1996 saw the establishment of the Council of Indigenous Peoples, in accordance with the constitution, and with an integrated administrative body, which led progressively to the formation of a legal and political framework for indigenous peoples.

To those of us in our fifties and sixties, maintaining our indigenous cultural practices was an important responsibility, as we had experienced tribal life, had attended traditional rituals and could still talk to the elder generation in our native tongues. I absorbed myself in aboriginal literature, as well as...

Read more: The Mission of This Generation

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

U'mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay, Vancouver Island

The U'mista Cultural Centre, founded in 1980 was a project to house 'potlatch' artefacts which had been seized by the government during an earlier period of cultural repression. The return of the potlatch artefacts provided the name of the centre - U'mista's or 'the return of something important', and provided the motivation behind the creation of a physical facility and Tsalala dance troupe. U'mista's operations include the running of a modern museum and cultural education facility, an extensive art gallery and gift shop, group tours, and presentations by dance troupes.

The group spent a whole day on this beautiful island at the mouth of U’mista centre, where they saw the...

Read more: Farewell Dance with the Kwakwa-ka-wakw

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Centre for Aboriginal Health Research (CAHR), University of Victoria, Victoria City, Vancouver Island

The University of Victoria (UVic) is a research intensive university considered a leader in Indigenous and cultural studies, with strong ties between Indigenous communities and researchers from a diverse range of disciplines. Established in 2008 the Centre for Aboriginal Health Research is dedicated to promoting and engaging in health research, in partnership with Aboriginal peoples (locally and globally), to improve their health. It is now a leading authority worldwide on Aboriginal health that is searching for a 'global lens on Aboriginal health', which made this visit all the more worthwhile. It was an excellent opportunity to...

Read more: A Global Lens on Indigenous Health

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Duncan City Hall, Duncan, Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island

We were all stunned when Duncan City Mayor, Phil Kent, personally opened the door to the City Hall for us and even further when Phil, Councillor Joe Thorne and a Federal representative, took the afternoon off work to take us around the the small city, giving us the local folklore and joining for lunch us to continue the days discussions.

During the presentation and discussion, our group was able to learn much about Government-First Nation relations in the past and how they are changing now to right the wrongs of history. City councillor Joe Thorne, is the First Nations representative on the council he explained how they initiate inter-community dialogue for more positive...

Read more: One Mind, One Heart

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Klahowya Village, Stanley Park, Vancouver City

After spending the morning sightseeing around Vancouver City, at the Queen Elizabeth Park, Chinatown and the pinnacle of western welfare states in action at less well-to-do end of East Hastings, we then moved on to the first major cultural exchange in our trip. Stanley Park covers 400 hectares of evergreen land close to downtown Vancouver. During the summer months from May to September the Vancouver Park Board has transformed a part of Stanley Park into an Aboriginal summer village, the Klahowya Village Park, a vibrant cultural experience of song, dance, art and cuisine. They offer storytelling, spirit catching train rides, two daily dance performances, Aboriginal cuisine and daily...

Read more: First Stop on the Spirit-Catching Train

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

University of British Columbia, Department of Anthropology, Vancouver

A long-serving professor of Anthropology, Dr Bruce Miller, has huge experience in World Aboriginal affairs. He first gave a presentation on the history and development of First Nation struggle in Canada, before extending to examples of Indigenous struggles elsewhere in the world including Brazil, the US and Papua New Guinea. After leading into discussion he gave advice on the repertoire of tools available for advancing Indigenous empowerment. He emphasized the importance of manipulating the laws available to them, but also the adoption of various tactics to advance the cause, such as the 'politics of embarrassment'. For Bruce Miller, most important of all was that...

Read more: Practice: The Art of Making Something from Nothing

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

First Nations House of Learning, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Education is a question right at the centre of the various global Indigenous movements and one of the students four focal groups. Apart from introducing the centres specific role in improving Aboriginal education, Rick Ouellet and Debra Martel also introduced to us how the Canadian education system worked for Indigenous peoples and what policies and projects had been successful. For example, British Columbia was the first province to make it a requirement that all teachers took courses in Indigenous studies. One area which the centre is working towards is in trying to reach a situation where people who acquire degrees, can go back to their communities after...

Read more: Standing on the Shoulders of our Culture

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

After receiving the lecture at the Department of Anthropology, we were guided through the Museum of Anthropology, founded in 1949, which houses over 38 000 ethnographic objects. Of particular interest to our students is that MOA is a world leader in collecting Aboriginal artefacts and there are approximately 6,000 objects from B.C's First Nations in MOA's collections, from totem poles, to canoes and carved boxes, bowls, and feast dishes. Furthermore the museum has an innovative storing methods and interactive software and hardware allowing one to explore the collections from the touch-screen computer or from the Internet. Visiting the MOA was an excellent opportunity for...

Read more: Totems, Canoes and Sisiutl Serpent Spoons

Bringing Home the Seeds of Indigenous Autonomy

Victoria Aboriginal Friendship Centre (VAFC), Victoria City, Vancouver Island

The Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society is a charitable welfare organisation with a specific mission to support the needs of 'Aboriginal people making a transition to the urban community. It aims to be holistic and cultural, providing social services; support in health, education and recreation, family support and maintenance of traditional values. Since Taiwan also has a significant urban Aborigine population, this was also an excellent chance for our students to see how successful the First Nations people have been in reconciling their dual identities in the city? Are the urban aborigines maintaining and even reviving their culture in this...

Read more: Giving Urban Aboriginals a Chance