My story is not exactly a very exciting one, but hopefully one that is interesting. Despite being a Canadian, I’ve grown up in Taiwan, having moved back only a year ago to attend university. Thus, my experiences with Aboriginal peoples and cultures mostly concerns the Aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. Here, I hope that I will be providing a more different perspective. First, some context: Taiwan is a Pacific island nation off the coast of Southeastern China, colonized first by the Portuguese and Spanish in the 17th Century, then by Ming and Qing Dynasty China, and then the Japanese in the late 19th Century. Then finally, it came under the dictatorial regime of the Chinese Nationalist Party after World War II. While Taiwan is widely believed to…show more content… Since the lifting of four decades of martial law in 1987, opposition political groups, including those that advocate for Aboriginal rights, flourished. Education curriculums were reformed from one that is dominated by Nationalist propaganda to one that focuses more on the Taiwanese experience. Funds for protecting and promoting awareness of Aboriginal cultures and issues were established. As an “experimental school” directly funded by the central government, our school was one of the first to receive such funding. Thus, my first encounters with Aboriginal peoples and culture came in elementary school. As part of the program, instead of field trips to the science museum or the local amusement park, we visited the “Aboriginal cultural park” in the nearby mountains, where we watched Aboriginal dances, watched the manufacturing of traditional glass beads, and wander around some traditional stone houses. On another field trip we visited a predominantly Aboriginal elementary school and engaged in “cultural exchange”, where we watched more dances, shook hands with the students at that school, and had some Aboriginal cuisine, involving roast boar and millet. Back in school we talked about the Aboriginal people in social studies class – how Aboriginal people built houses using local materials suited for the local climate, how crops were cultivated in high altitudes, how certain arts and symbols are associated with their beliefs, and also some overview on the cultures of the different tribes. Everyone was also offered an option to take classes in an aboriginal language (although very few parents actually consented). There were also a handful of Aboriginal students at our school, although they were largely indistinguishable (at least in our eyes, parents and teachers like to talk about how they have darker skin and are more ADHD inclined). All this was definitely fun for us students, although any time not spent in school and any subject
