The contents of the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Exhibition in the Belau National Museum (BNM) have been updated for the public to visit.
The BNM moved to the current home located at Ngerbeched hamlet in Koror with the assistance of Taiwan government in 2005. To illustrate the intrinsic connections between Taiwan’s indigenous peoples and other Austronesian speaking peoples in the Pacific, a Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Exhibition Room was established in the museum’s new home.
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With the awareness of the indigenous peoples’ rights and the growth of tribal recognition movements booming in the past decade in Taiwan, the contents of the Taiwan indigenous peoples’ exhibition in the museum need to be updated to reflect the current situation of the Taiwan indigenous peoples. For example, through the tribal recognition movements, the official number of the recognized indigenous peoples increased from 13 to 16. Hence, the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) in Taiwan decided to send two experts to come to Palau for the updating work.
On March 4-8, 2017, Zuzule Demalalade from the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Development Center of the CIP, and Zepulj Kaluvung, Director of Black Bricks Design Studio, both from Pingtung indigenous tribes in the sunny Southern Taiwan, came to Palau and revamped the exhibition anew.
During their visit, they also had pleasant exchanges with Olympia Morei, Director of BNM, and both sides expressed a high interest in renewing the memorandum of understanding on the mutual indigenous exchanges between Taiwan and Palau in the near future. Zuzule and Zupulj enjoyed their short but warmhearted trip in Palau and appreciated the sincere friendship from their Palauan brothers and sisters. [/restrict]