wfn.org | Canadian Scholar Trains Taiwan's Aborigines

["pctpress" <pctpress@ms1.hinet.net>]

Taiwan Church News 2725, 17 through 23 May 2004
Reported by: Gu Hao-jan.  Translated and Rewritten by David Alexander

Professor Robert W. Heber, a Canadian expert on Aboriginal education,
recently
led a set of seminars in Taiwan on the theme of establishing of Aboriginal
Self Education alongside mainstream systems. He calls for Aborigines to be
educated in a dual track fashion and encourages non-aborigines to accept the
value of Aboriginal education in the same ways that Aborigines have been
inculcated into the mainstream. He believes that a touch of the Aboriginal
would help all to overcome the Western values of individualism.

The Aboriginal Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT)
recently sponsored the seminars on "Taiwan and Canada Aboriginal Education
Theory and Practice."  Professor Heber, an associate professor at the
Graduate
School of Aboriginal Studies in Canada's First Nations' University, delivered
the main addresses.  He said that the main issues at this time are protection
of language and prevention of diffusion.

Even though Canada's Aborigines have their own national assembly education
remains the product of the central government. Villages nonetheless retain a
great amount of authority over local curriculum. Residential schools require
students to return to villages on weekends where they can get "village
training" and see what they learn in context.

Heber says that outside educational systems are not necessarily compatible
with Aboriginal educational theory, and their imposition has led to great
ruin. He asserts the need for Aborigines to first understand their own
identity. The foundation of self-identity undergirds transformation of
traditional ideology of dependence.

Dr. Lin Ruei-lung, the president of Presbyterian Bible College in Hsin-chu,
differed with Professor Heber on a few points.	He agreed that education is
of
prime importance, but wants the emphasis to be laid on the teachers to
promote
Aboriginal students' self-identity. He called for the insertion of a strong
curriculum in tribal languages into elementary and junior high schools.

A different set of questions came from Rev. Sakinu (Dai Ming-hsiung), the
Moderator of the PCT's East Paiwan Presbytery. He questions the basis of the
dual track system, and whether it emerges from Aborigines at all.  He
suggests
that if Professor Heber's ideas are to bear fruit, the teachers must
themselves come to the villages, work there and by that method learn village
culture. The alternative is to give more homework to students who return to
villages, assigning them to observe and record the actual life of the
village.

Professor Wang Ming-chun from National Normal University attempted to bring
some agreement out of the mix by calling on every tribal group to lay
emphasis
on self-education for self-understanding.

For More Information: Aboriginal Mission Committee: abor@mail.pct.org.tw
		      Sakinu  lalaurn.church@msa.hinet.net
Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages.
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