Meeting with Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) August 21, 2020

To view more photos from the meeting, click here.

Meeting Notes

ATAYAL Attendees:

Tony Coolidge (Executive Director)
Gary Smoke (Deputy Director)
Chloe Hsia (PR Coordinator)
Johan Coolidge (Indigenous Youth Ambassador Program Coordinator)
Joey Chiu (Assistant for Mask Sourcing)

Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) Attendees:

Ruey-yng Wang (Director, Department of General Planning)
Kang-ning Lee (Section Chief, Department of General Planning)
Sayun Tosu (Specialist, Department of General Planning)
Chung-hao Shen (Officer, Department of General Planning)

Meeting Agenda:

The meeting was called to present and discuss the four current projects planned by the ATAYAL organization for 2020-2021. The Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) responded with how they could support each project. Since ATAYAL has the mission of facilitating indigenous exchanges, through culture education, tourism  and trade, our goal is to find partners who can work together with our assistance. With this meeting, the CIP shared how they can support Taiwan’s indigenous exchanges as a partner governmental organization.

Meeting Results:

The following items were discussed:

1) 2021 Tribal Canoe Journeys - ATAYAL shared a presentation on the Tribal Canoe Journeys to give the CIP a sense of the historic significance and scope of the annual indigenous cultural event. Each of our projects are related to this event, so this presentation was made to set the stage, so to speak. It was made clear that through this event, indigenous Taiwanese had the opportunity to have exchanges with Native Americans, Canadian First Nations, Hawaiians and other Austronesian groups. 

2) ATAYAL/Indigenous Bridges Cultural Exchange Fundraising Campaign and Face Mask Drive - ATAYAL organization will begin their fundraising campaign to raise funds for their 2020-2021 Indigenous Youth Ambassador program and exchange trip with the 2021 Tribal Canoe Journeys. A total of $500,000 will be set as a goal, with money going towards the exchange trip and “Made In Taiwan” surgical face masks, which will be presented as gifts for the host tribes and guests of the 2021 Tribal Canoe Journeys, in order to help make the event safer. It was requested that the CIP consider the face masks could be good gifts of goodwill that the CIP could subsidize the cost of and  provide a design(er) that could make a unique design for a gift.

RESULT: The CIP agreed that they could help with the design/designer. They stated it would be difficult to get accounting to approve funding for face masks per se, but if this budget was attached to an international cultural exchange budget, as a gift expense, then it would be more likely to receive approval. Of course, for cultural exchange trip events, the maximum budget offered by the CIP can only be NT500,000.

3) Indigenous Youth Ambassador Program - Wanting to bring a group of indigenous youth for a cultural exchange trip to the USA/Canada for Tribal Canoe Journeys, we have been seeking the ideal partners to work with to provide indigenous students from Taiwan. These students would work with Native American and Hawaiian Youth Ambassadors to work on issues shared by all indigenous peoples, and also plant the seeds for future Sister Tribe relationships. We were considering working with National Dong Hwa University and National Cheng Chi University, as they have notable indigenous departments. We offered to have a Workshop with the students during Winter Break to prepare them for the international exchange trip. Then, the Universities could organize and get funding for this preparatory training and selection process for the indigenous youth ambassadors.

RESULT: The CIP shared a current project that they fund and organize. It is a program that cultivates indigenous students from different universities across Taiwan for international exchange. (Cultivate Program). They currently have 30 students in the program. They invited our organization to work with this program and join this group of students for one day of orientation about the Tribal Canoe Journeys. They also invited us to discuss selection criteria for our final ambassadors that we want to bring.

4) Native American Delegation Exchange Trip to Taiwan - We have planned a reciprocal exchange trip by Hanford McCloud, Tribal Council member of the Nisqually Tribe, and Freddie Lane, Tribal Council member of the Lummi Tribe. We shared that they plan to visit, if international travel resumes, in May 2021. A two-week visit is ideal. They hope to visit the Tao Tribe, who they have already hosted in Washington State in 2018 and 2019. They would like to go on a fact-finding, relationship-building trip for their own Indigenous Youth Exchange Program to Taiwan, and also check out Taiwan’s indigenous cultures.

RESULT: When it was mentioned that we hoped to develop a Sister Tribe relationship between the Nisqually Tribe and the Tao Tribe, the CIP responded by saying that funding for their trip could be provided by the government if the Nisqually and Tao tribe could have some type of MOU prepared and signed during the trip. They said this funding would be conditional on an MOU. However, when we mentioned that these Native American leaders also work with indigenous tourism development in the USA, and were interested in experiencing indigenous tourism in Taiwan, the CIP said they could arrange these indigenous tour experiences in Taiwan (probably paid for by the CIP) as a separate funding item. What may be ideal is that after the Native American delegation had the tourism experiences, on the last day of their trip, they have a 1-day or 2-day Indigenous Tourism Summit at the CIP in Taipei to share their findings and present comparisons with Native American indigenous tourism. It would be a good foundation to develop indigenous tourism exchange.

5) Tatala Canoe Building Project in Washington State - Deputy Director Gary Smoke shared the Tatala Canoe Building Project, where a traditional canoe from the Tao Tribe of Taiwan will be built in Washington State with the host Nisqually Tribe. The canoe would be used by Taiwanese indigenous participants of the annual Tribal Canoe Journeys. When not used, it would be displayed and maintained at the Nisqually Culture Center. The Burke Museum of Washington State wants to document the building of the canoe. To save money, the pieces of wood from Taiwan would be used and shipped to the USA, but the majority of the wood would be sourced locally in the USA. It would take a minimum of 2 months to build.

RESULT: The CIP asked about the budget for this project. I mentioned a figure of USD $50,000 off the top of my head, based on a previous conversation with Akai, but I said it depended on the size of the tatala.

New Agenda Items:

A) Paddle Around Taiwan - The meeting opened the floor for discussion of a new potential project for cooperation. The Tatala builder, Akai, expressed his desire to paddle his tatala canoe around the entire main island of Taiwan, with a vision of inviting other tribes to join this Paddle Around Taiwan in the future. Akai said this project has the support of the Chi Po-lin Foundation. We discussed how this could become an international indigenous cultural exchange event in the future, where we could invite Native Americans, our Tribal Canoe Journeys partners, to participate. This could be a long-term project to support as a reciprocal event for the Tribal Canoe Journeys. The CIP said they would be interested in supporting this vision, and we suggested that in order to increase public support and funding in Taiwan, they should invite Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV) to produce a story about Akai’s journey and his vision to broadcast. CIP Director Wang said that should be easy, because the new head of TITV is from the Tao Tribe. He said he would make the connection for us.

B) MOU With the Austronesian Forum - We discussed how our organization could be facilitated if we had an MOU with the CIP. Director Wang said that since we were an NGO, they would suggest that we have an MOU with the Austronesian Forum, which is an NGO related to the CIP.

Conclusion:

The CIP will check with the various departments on moving forward with us on our programs. They will check with the accounting department to verify the legal and financial limitations about funding our masks. We will reach out to them for follow-up on Monday, August 31, 2020.