University of Helsinki
Participating in United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
As a Indigenous researcher, I believe that all the issues that we face is not merely consequential, but highly political. I am therefore actively involved as a NGO delegate to UNPFII as a way to connect with the issues in a substantial manner. At the same time, it is also an important channel for people like me who live abroad to contribute to the urgent issues on the grass root level. UNPFII is the world’s biggest human rights conference and it is truly a privilege to be able to participate and exchange strategies with indigenous brothers and sisters against human rights violations .
The report of our participation in 2017 UNPFII can be found from Council of Indigenous Peoples here (in Mandarin).
Disseminate Working/Studying in Finland from a Taiwanese Perspective
水鹿遇到馴鹿 (lit. “when sambar deer meets reindeer”) is the platform that I collaborated with a group of Taiwanese researchers. We write about our reflections encountering the Finnish university and society. As the articles are written in Mandarin Chinese, we hope that we contribute to a more diverse understanding of Finland for Mandarin speakers around the world.
The name of the platform is named 水鹿遇到馴鹿, literally it means “when sambar deer meets reindeer”. Formosan sambar deer is a very typical deer in Taiwan and it represents a sense of Taiwaneseness. We use “when sambar deer meets reindeer” to signifies our encounter with Finland.
Connect with the Finnish Society through Volunteering
My research tackles long-term care for the elderly and Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty in social services. Though the focus of the dissertation is in Taiwan, I am also immensely interested in the way elderly people are cared for in Finland. Therefore, I decided to be an active volunteer in various care facilities for the elderly.
In the Autumn of 2017, I collaborated with Taiwanese people living in Finland (both permanently and temporarily) to conduct volunteering with the elderly people. Please check out our excellent vignette about “Black bear metsässä 森林裡的黑熊” for more information!
