講者

For a long time, assimilation policy has dominated Taiwan’s indigenous education, resulting in the disappearance of language, culture and value system. In 2015, we took a bottom-up approach to change the indigenous education, so our children can learn the tribal culture and wisdom that has been passed down for generations. By holding the common belief that “if we don’t do this today, we won’t see the Atayal tribe tomorrow”, we established the first experimental Atayal elementary school in Taiwan. The vision of our curriculum is that all our children will be “Atayanl na balay (become a real person)”. At the core of our course curriculum is the Atayal culture, and we built upon it the Atayal knowledge system to enhance students’ competitiveness, and foster our children to be “Kinya lyutu na Atayal (Atayal Soul)” - a whole person of Atayal. In 2019, there are 30 indigenous experimental schools in Taiwan now that are changing the indigenous education throughout Taiwan, regaining the subjectiveness in the indigenous education.

* Bowuma means foster and floursh in Atayal tribal language.