Taiwanese aboriginal youth forced to leave home for work and study

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@wcrc.ch>]

World Communion of Reformed Churches  
News Feature 
29 April 2011
 
Taiwanese aboriginal youth forced to leave home for work and
study
 
By Kristine Greenaway
 
It is Saturday night and the place is rocking. Singers jump in
time to the music of drums, guitar and keyboard. A crowd of young
people leap about waving their hands high above their head and
singing along, their faces aglow. This is Saturday night… at the
local church!
 
The 25 young people are members of the youth group at Subus(Red
Leaf) church, a parish in the Central Mountain region of eastern
Taiwan serving the Truku Aboriginal (Indigenous) community. Their
pastor, Rev. Lin, is one of four ordained Indigenous women
working with congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
(PCT) in this predominantly aboriginal area.
 
Soon most of this group of young people will leave their home
community for the city to complete their high school studies or
look for work as there are few senior high schools in Taiwan’s
rural areas and little chance for employment. 
 
Many young Aboriginals find work as labourers in industry or
construction. They are underpaid, marginalized and poorly housed.
Alone in the city, some succumb to alcoholism or prostitution to
survive. 
 
PCT, aware of these dangers and hardships, supports church-based
initiatives designed to help Indigenous young people when they
leave home.  
 
The most important thing, says Sing ‘Olam, PCT Associate General
Secretary, is to reassure Indigenous young people about their
identity when faced with discrimination by members of the
non-aboriginal Han majority.
 
“They judge Indigenous people by their language, income and
level of education,” says Sing who is a member of the Amis
aboriginal people. 
 
Sing believes the church’s message to young people must be: “You
were created by God. Some people will look down on you but don’t
ask why you were born in an Indigenous village. Rather thank God
you were born there.”
 
The church has a long history of helping young aboriginal people
when they leave their home communities for the city. Some
church-supported centres offer after-school programmes; others
provide advice on where to get jobs. Dialogue groups connect
aboriginal people who know the city with newcomers and offer the
chance to share information about job skills training and where
to find low-cost housing.
 
The church also supports formal education institutions such as
the Christian Tanjian High School in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei,
where one-fifth of the students are Aboriginals who pay reduced
tuition fees. With financial support from PCT,
graduates have gone on to university studies in medicine, law
and veterinary sciences.
 
As a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC),
the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan is active in WCRC’s human
rights and advocacy programmes that are based on an
interpretation of the Bible which says Christians must work for
social and economic justice in society. 
 
PCT recognizes that the cause of the exodus of young people from
the countryside lies in government policy about land ownership
and development priorities. For over twenty years, the church has
been putting pressure on the Taiwanese government to respect land
claims by Indigenous people so that young people can return to
their home communities and earn a living. 
 
It is important, says Sing, for the government to honour its
election promise to grant autonomy and self-determination to
aboriginal groups in their home regions. 
 
A law currently before the legislature is said by the government
to allow creation of autonomous aboriginal regions. PCT believes
however that in fact the law allows the government to tighten its
control over the regions’ natural resources, making it even more
difficult for young people to earn a living in their home
communities. Until they can, the youth exodus from rural to urban
areas will continue.
 
For now, the young people in Rev. Lin’s church dance and sing in
their Saturday night Praise Group. The next day, Easter Sunday,
they will sing in front of a crowd of worshippers from five
neighbouring aboriginal congregations and know they are where
they belong, but for how long?  
 
 -- Kristine Greenaway, head of communication for the World
Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), is in Taiwan at the
invitation of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, a WCRC member
church. This is one of a series of stories on PCT’s ministries
with the country’s 15 aboriginal (or Indigenous) groups. 
 
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan is a small but significant
force in Taiwanese society. Its members make up just over 1% of
the population that is primarily Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, or
secular. Known for its human rights, social service and mission,
the church is closely connected to the country’s aboriginal
peoples. Eleven of its 23 presbyteries represent Indigenous
congregations; the remaining 12 are Han or Hakka.  
 
WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million
Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting
economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation
among Christians of different traditions. 
 
Media Contacts: 
Kristine Greenaway
Office of Communications
Email: kgr@wcrc.ch
tel: +41 (0)22 791 62 43;
cell phone: +41 (0)79 508 20 43 
fax: +41 (0)22 791 65 05
www.wcrc.ch ( http://www.wcrc.ch/ )