Indigenous Communities Still Struggling a Year On From Hualien Earthquake

TaiwanPlus News

Indigenous people along Taiwan’s east coast are struggling financially after being displaced one year on from the deadly earthquake that shook the region.

Transcript

00:0069-year-old Zhu Xiaolan has spent much of her life hiking up and down these mountains

00:07along Taiwan's east coast.

00:14But a year ago, on April 3rd, she was forced to see her ancestral home from a new angle

00:20after being airlifted to safety when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Hualien County.

00:26The tremor, and the landslides it triggered, killed at least 18 people.

00:41Members of the mostly mountain-dwelling Truku indigenous group, numbering some 30,000, Zhu

00:46and her family used to earn a living guiding tourists around their village.

00:50But everything changed after the quake.

01:08A year later, and Zhu is still working as a street cleaner.

01:12But as government-sponsored temp work, it's not a permanent solution.

01:16Zhu is far from the only member of her community uprooted by the quake.

01:21People from indigenous villages across the county came down from their rural mountain

01:25homes to more urban areas like this old street to find work, so they can continue earning

01:31an income to support their families.

01:35Before the quake, Ooming Loking worked at a hotel inside Taroko National Park, where

01:40many of the most devastating landslides took place.

01:44After its closure, Ooming, with some other young members of his indigenous community,

01:49decided to open a cafe outside the park, to continue their mission of keeping the culture

01:54of the Truku people alive.

02:16Business owner Garau has been a representative for his community for years.

02:21Before the quake, he was working with the local government to build new access paths

02:25to his people's remote villages, but he says that since the disaster, indigenous communities

02:30are feeling left behind.

02:52The government-sponsored temp work that has been supporting Zhu and many other indigenous

02:56people across Hualien is set to end within months, with no news yet of extensions.

03:02In the face of financial uncertainties, and after being forced out of their homes, this

03:07community has come to rely on each other, to make it through one of the worst natural

03:11disasters in living memory.

03:14Chris Ma, Geoffrey Chen and Rhys Ayres in Hualien for Taiwan Plus.

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