"In the Atayal Tribe Culture, the youngest son stayed with the parents, so I came back." The Chairman, Cheng-chih Chung, said certainly. Mr. Chung grew up following his grandfather and father in the forest to collect and hunt. After graduating from the university, he worked in Hsinchu Science Industrial Park and foreign companies for 20 years. He was “tricked” by village elders to attend the Association meeting and was elected to the Chairman unexpectedly.

The seeds of tribal management have been planted in Mr. Chung's mind for a long time. During his university period, a teacher gave him a special question: Trying to calculate the traps for catching the wild boar. Which made him realize that "The traditional tribe wisdom can be combined with general knowledge." Today, he brings what has learned 20 years from the prior works into the tribe management plan.  

Goal: To Develop the Tribe and Keep Young People Stay
Mr. Chung started with community care, cultural heritage, and talent empowering in the first three management years, laying the foundation of the Association and working for a 10-years plan. He analyzed the communities' problems and tried to find the consensus of the villagers. He was bold to integrate the consensus from the Village Chief, Tribe Chairman (Headman), and Village Representative and finally generated a common goal "The tribe has to develop to keep the young people."

However, how to reach the goal? Mr. Chung decided to restore the tribesmen's self-identity and honor in the memories, and which has to rebuild the confidence of the tribe culture.

Establish the First Autonomous Hunting Group in Yilan for Cultural Reconstruction
The traditional Atayal tribe lived by hunting and forest collecting, and the tribesmen also went deeply into the ancient paths to cut down woods for mushroom cultivation. However, those activities were conflict with the mission of the Forestry Bureau which made a long-strained relationship between the tribe and Forestry Bureau. In order to build mutual trust and cooperation, on one hand, Mr. Chung made the officials understand the historical trauma that the tribe had endured and made three agreements with Lundong Forest District Office: to replace reclamation with forest collecting, rent the forest land, and divide the hunting area and the non-hunting area. The non-hunting area has suspended hunting for 2 years, and it will ultimately let the tribe manage the hunting ground independently. 

On the other hand, Taiwan Cypress and Red Cypress in the mountains were often been stolen by the "Mountain Rats", so Mr. Chung suggested the Official allow the tribesmen to guard their own hunting area and catch those "Mountain Rats" for the Forest Bureau. Which doesn't only protect the ecology but the tribe's living. 

The official accepted Mr. Chung's suggestion. In 2017, the Council of Agriculture and the Council of Indigenous People enacted the Legislation to promote an autonomous hunting management mechanism, YingShi Community became the first example of an autonomous area. Today, the Mountain Rats have disappeared, the animals are thriving and flourishing in the non-hunting area. Mr. Chung took 3 years for the Tribe and the Forestry Bureau to finally trust each other and become a partnership. From 2018 to 2020, the Association has been awarded the “First Place, Excellent, and Distinction” Prizes by Lundong Forest District Office.

Creates Highlights for Sightseeing, Ancient Path, and combined Hot Spring with Tribal Culture and History 
To develop the Tribe, it must develop local characteristics and industries. However, there were no traditional Atayal buildings, sites, or imagery in the Tribe. Therefore, the Association hired workers, purchased materials, and asked the elders and youth learning together to build a Bamboo made traditional bonfire house. They also use the Atayal woodworking method to build the Hn-Kiyan Handicraft Trail and Dreaming Butterfly-202 Handicraft Trail which were used as a police trail during the Japanese Colonial Rule period.

The Hn-Kiyan Trail is about 2.4 Km and full of historical scenes along the way. From the end of 2019, the trail has become a major role in the development of eco-tourism for the Tribe. Visitors can learn about the tribal architecture and the history of the Ke-kan Battle, which is comparable to that of 300 warriors. They can make traps by hand and look for the footprints of more than 30 kinds of animals such as muntjac, goats, and wild boar. They eat "Hunter's rice bun", experience the Atayal hunting culture, and even participate in hand-made trails. Other experiencing tours include A Walking Hot Spring, the Pong-Pong Rive hot spring trail, food and farming culture, weaving workshop, and the annual festival (such as millet planting), etc.

The process of resource integration has been difficult. "There was a lot of tension between tribesmen and the Association" , the Association Project Manager, Hui-chuan Chang, recalled. Because those people had various doubts and self-benefits concerns, "Through continuous communicating and inviting them to join the Association, they finally made a consensus."

Create a Six-grade Industrial Chain and Pass the Tribal Culture
With the basis of Primary industry agriculture products and tourism as the locomotive, the two industries have driven the development of local industries and cultural heritage.

"The Tribe's biggest feature is to create a Six-grade Economic Industrial Chain.", Mr. Chung explained. The approach is to diversify Agri-production at the Primary industry, add micro-processed products at the Secondary industry to extend the freshness date, and then link up with the Tribal Tourism at the Tertiary industry to form a Six-grade Economic Industrial Chain. “The Association as a platform and the staffs empower the tribesmen's job capacity to increase their employment opportunities, and assist the sales of Smallholders' Agri-products.”

For example, the Association has cooperated with the Indigenous Tribal University to develop nine kinds of souvenirs, including Ailanthus Prickly Ash Marshmallow Biscuits, Maqaw (Litsea Cubeba) Crackers, Maqaw Cabbage Smoked Chicken Tart, etc. In cooperation with the Department of Food Science in National Ilan University, the Association has developed products made of high-quality vegetables from Datong Township and combined them with tourism trips and online marketing to open the sales channel. 
Through the mechanism, the Association utilizes the resources of the Multi-Employment Promotion Program (MEPP), Ministry of Labor (MOL) to train its villagers a second Specialty, including Agri-products processing, weaving crafts, and guided tours. Which can bring income to young people and poor families. In 2020, despite the COVID-19 adversity, the Associate still earned a prosperity revenue.

In the meanwhile, through MEPP, the Association hired local young people to interview the elderly and created tribal picture books and guiding plays, which can present and enrich the content of tribal culture.

Talent Cultivation and Community Care with First Free Telemedicine Service
In terms of cultural heritage, the Association invited local craftsmen to teach traditional Atayal skills of woven rattan, dyeing, and weaving, hunting, etc. Villagers and visitors can enroll to learn these skills and sell their craftworks through the Association's channels.

The Datong Township Digital Opportunity Center (DOC) assisting established by the Ministry of Education, offers a variety of digital marketing and lifestyle application courses to develop digital skills for young adults, which they can apply those skills to the marketing of Agri-products and tours, as well as to preserve the tribal images and texts using digital archiving technology.

The Association collaborated with Eden Social Welfare Foundation to train the local young people as Nurse Aide which effectively reduces the turnover rate of Nurse Aide, enhances the service quality, and even creates employment opportunities.

The Association is also responsible for the whole Community care services such as Tribal Cultural Health Station, elderly Congregate Meal, and Meal Delivery services. What's more, Yingshi Community pioneered the free Community Telemedicine service two years ago. 
"The cost of medical treatment for patients in a remote village is 15 to 20 times higher than those in urban areas." Mr. Chung said. Therefore, he introduces outside resources into the Tribe which he expert from the Technology Industry, cooperating with Curdoctor Information Service Corp., Taiwan Tele-Wise Love Charity Alliance, and Cheng Hsin General Hospital to provide free weekly video clinics for the villagers as a tribe health care network. Now the video clinics are gradually being extended to other remote tribes.

Young People Return, Train, and Work in The Local Community
"Kn-bung" is the ancient Atayal name of Yingshi Community which means "Land of abundance". As the helmsman of the Association, Mr. Chung's greatest hope is to learn from Satoyama Tribe in Japan, to realize the ideal of harmonious coexistence of the forest, community, and agricultural ecology. He also advocates the traditional Atayal living norms (gaga) and knowledge, replacing reclamation with forest collecting. And he believes the "Land of abundance" can feed the people and use the sustainable method to manage the land and natural resources.

With the gradual maturation of the Six-grade Industrial Chain and the implementation of local training and employment, the results are already visible-the young people back home! The most obvious is that there are 22 students in Yingshi Elementary School, where there were only a few students; Even the kindergarten is full for the second year in a row with 30 children! The Association's current 12 staff are all the local youths with different talents. "Let the young people take on the sustainable development of the tribe as tribe's blessing and help." , Mr. Chung said. The momentum of young people working together has reignited the vitality of the tribe.

▲Business Model

▲The Hn-Kiyan Trail is full of historical scenes along the way and a major role in the development of eco-tourism of the Tribe.

▲The Tribesmen learn the Atayal art of gun-shaped weaving in the cultural heritage course.

▲The visitors experience DIY "Hunter's rice bun". (Picture Provide: Yingshi Community Development Association)

Case story: Multi-Employment Promotion Program

Interviewee: Yingshi Community Development Association

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 

Please attribute this article to “Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Labor.”