Today, Icyang Parod, minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples, met with Jenny Bloomfield, representative of the Australian Office in Taipei at the Council of Indigenous Peoples, reaching a consensus on the establishment of a more comprehensive and substantial partnership in the future.

This was Representative Bloomfield’s first visit to the Council of Indigenous Peoples after taking office in Taiwan. To welcome Bloomfield, Minister Icyang Parod personally adorned her with an ’alofo (an Amis sidepack) as a token of blessing. Representative Bloomfield voluntarily asked Minister Icyang Parod to teach her the Amis language, emphasizing the importance of preserving the languages of indigenous people in Taiwan and Australia.

Minister Icyang Parod explained that Representative Bloomfield had previously submitted writings to the media and delivered public speeches supporting important Taiwanese and Australian indigenous people-related issues, and also attended the “81Indigenous People Day:27th Anniversary of Name Rectification as well as the “Looking Back and Looking Ahead” event hosted by the Council of Indigenous Peoples. These efforts fully illustrated her firm attitude towards promoting policy exchange relating to the Taiwanese and Australian indigenous people.

During her visit, Representative Bloomfield thanked Minister Icyang Parod for the special vegetables grown in indigenous tribes that the minister sent her as a gift last month, saying that this allowed her to share fresh vegetables with others during the high COVID-19 alert level period. Additionally, the success of the Ayoi e-commerce platform had left a deep impression on her. She hoped that in the future the Council of Indigenous Peoples would make arrangements for her to personally visit indigenous tribes, so that she could observe in person the connection between indigenous tribe-grown special agricultural products and e-commerce. 

Minister Icyang Parod remarked that the two parties had reached a consensus on expansion ofTaiwanese and Australian indigenous people-related international exchange from the current basis of the cultural and agricultural sectors to other sectors such as language, economics, and trade. Additionally, a plan to establish the National Indigenous Australians Agency was initiated, allowing for more substantive cooperation and exchanges between the Taiwanese and Australian government departments.