July 23, 2022—Ms. Afas‧Falah, Deputy Minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), represented the CIP today to attend the unveiling of the Misatapang ato Nikacomahad Beginnings and Prospects Forum: The Construction of Indigenous Education and Cultural Knowledge Systems. More than 200 participants with an interest in the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples joined in the discussion.

In her speech, Deputy Minister Afas declared that after the amendment of the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples on June 19^th, 2019, the CIP consulted with the relevant agencies under the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Culture as well as with Academia Sinica to formulate the Medium- to Long-Term Plan for the Construction of Indigenous Education and Cultural Knowledge Systems. This 5-year plan designed to promote 3 major strategies—knowledge construction, knowledge practice, and cloud services—was approved by the Executive Yuan on September 26, 2020, with a total budget of NT$ 1,864,054,000. It is the first time ever that the combined power of multiple government agencies has been harnessed to promote a major policy of this sort at the national level. Thanks to their support for this planning process, a set of initiatives to define the intrinsic nature of indigenous knowledge systems should be complete by the time the plan expires in 2025.

In addition, Ms. Afas pointed out that the forum included a keynote speech on “The Past and Future of the Construction of Indigenous Knowledge Systems” and a special report on the “Medium- to Long-Term Plan for the Construction of Indigenous Education and Cultural Knowledge Systems,” as well as discussion sessions on three sub-topics: “Reflections on the Systematization of Indigenous Knowledge,” “Ethnic Education and Indigenous Knowledge,” and “Retaining and Applying Indigenous Knowledge Systems.” We hope these wonderful presentations will provide the public with a further understanding of the construction of indigenous knowledge systems.