The death of an elder may take away the memory of the tribe. The National Academy of Education focuses on the dilemma of inheriting the ethnic language

When an elder dies, he may take away his clan language, genealogy, place names and forest wisdom. The National Institute of Education held a seminar on education policies for indigenous peoples today (16th). Su Meijuan, principal of Taoshan Elementary School in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County, pointed out in the study that the loss of ethnic languages ​​is not only the decrease in the number of speakers, but also involves the break in historical memory and cultural inheritance. Policies should not only look at the number of certified people and the number of hours of learning, but also focus on whether young people can use the ethnic languages ​​to teach the next generation.

The study takes three young Atayal people in Hsinchu County as an example. As their elders passed away one after another, they felt the urgency of cultural rupture. They have been learning from the elders for more than two years. They visited 22 tribes and asked 61 elders to learn the ethnic language, chanting, genealogy, migration history and mountain forest knowledge.

Young people also used digital tools to organize information, completing 30 Lmuhuw chanting records, nearly 10 podcast episodes, organizing Atayal genealogy information for more than 7,000 people, and holding youth workshops to transform knowledge scattered among different elders, families and tribes into media accessible to the younger generation.

Su Meijuan pointed out that Taiwan’s current ethnic language mentoring system helps young people engage in learning, but it still faces problems such as limited places, emphasis on certification, relatively fixed matching methods, and lack of career connection after training. Obtaining a language certificate may not necessarily show whether an apprentice can explain genealogy, record tribal history or teach culture in the tribal language. She suggested that the system should allow for "one apprentice with multiple teachers" and cross-tribal learning, and establish an advanced training and post-training employment mechanism to connect hometown schools, cultural centers, and digital collections, so that return-to-home learning can become a sustainable cultural career.

Xie Ruolan, a professor at the College of Aboriginal Ethnic Studies at Donghua University, pointed out that the education of indigenous peoples is moving from "being educated" to "deciding their own education." The focus is not only on increasing ethnic language courses, but also on who decides the teaching content, what language to use and how to transmit knowledge. She emphasized that there is no need to choose between traditional culture and modern technology. Aboriginal people can carry their own knowledge and values ​​into the future.

Lin Congyi, president of the Chinese Academy of Education, said that global indigenous education is shifting from "assimilation orientation" to "independent development and educational sovereignty practice" and will continue to deepen research and promote on-site dialogue between administration, academics and education as a basis for policy discussions.

The seminar also brought together international experiences such as New Zealand's Maori independent education and Palau language and culture courses. The Chinese Academy of Education published a study on the cultivation of higher education talents for indigenous peoples, covering four aspects: talent supply and demand adaptation, student learning adaptation, learning performance, and the guarantee system for further education. It explores the development direction of education for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, from cultural inheritance to higher education talent cultivation.