After the devastation of Typhoon Morakot in 2009, a portion of the indigenous tribes residing in Wutai relocated to permanent housing projects. The indigenous people that once lived in the mountains were challenged with adapting to a new life with new cultures and industries. They faced extreme cultural differences, industrial distress, and the collapse of their social structures. “Golden City of Cloud-Covered Mountain Forest – Rukai Tribe Wutai County Millet Recultivation and Innovation Project” aims to devise courses and innovative, value-added strategies to attract students in investing in the recultivation and innovation of indigenous industries. In the first phase, students carry out field surveys to record the species of millet grown in Wutai and learn about the cultural connotations of planting, sowing, and preserving millet.
The second phase aims to assist tribes in establishing a recultivation organization and designing courses, training programs, and visitation activities to attract middle-aged and healthy adults back to rural regions and cultivate millet. In the third stage, this project hopes to garner the resources of universities and social enterprises into packaging, design, and marketing.
