A group of 15 undergraduate students at the University of Ottawa is getting ready to undertake a three-week field research course at National Dong Hua University (NDHU) in Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan, an area with a large indigenous population. NDHU is one of the world’s few universities that focuses on indigenous education from undergraduate to Ph.D. level.

The three-week field research course for upper-level undergraduate students is jointly organized by the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies of the University of Ottawa and the College of Indigenous Studies at NDHU. It will include classes held at the College of Indigenous Studies and off-campus fieldwork. The learning objectives for the participating students are: 1) to gain knowledge of what indigeneity means in the specific context of Taiwan and its local communities, paying special attention to environmental issues; and 2) to gain hands-on experience of anthropological field research methods: namely participant observation research, taking field notes, and photography.

Part of the course will be taught by professors from the College of Indigenous Studies and part will be taught by Prof. Scott Simon from the University of Ottawa. Class excursions will give students an opportunity to visit a coastal Amis community, a southern Rukai community, and the high mountain Truku community of Skadang, located at an altitude of 1200 meters in the Taroko National Park. This will give the students an opportunity to learn about two of the different political traditions that developed among different indigenous communities in Taiwan: that of the egalitarian Truku community, and that of the ranked Rukai society. 

Photo:Dr. Scott Simon and the group of University of Ottawa students who will be travelling to Taiwan at a briefing session at the TECO office in Ottawa.