First Founding Meeting of the ACECA

Group photo from the first meeting of founding members.

On Sunday, September 22, 2013, the first group of founding members signed in and attended the meeting that would secure the initial requirement of having 30 founding members. The meeting location was at the Taipei Artists Village. Thanks to the owner, we had an awesome meeting space to meet each other and learn more about the ACECA.

Tony Coolidge and Sophie Chang share about the background behind the formation of the ACECA.

The meeting opened up with Tony Coolidge sharing about his background and the development of the ATAYAL organization. The ATAYAL organization is the sister organization of the ACECA. Its mission is to connect indigenous tribes of the world with the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. ACECA was formed for the purpose of connecting Taiwan's indigenous peoples with the Austronesian peoples of the Pacific. Their missions are complementary, and the ACECA will have improved ability to do raise funds and operate in Taiwan.

Volunteers were helpful greeting and signing in our guests.

Founding members at the meeting were able to introduce themselves and share a little about what they are doing in Taiwan.

With the help of Sophie Chang, Tony was able to present a slideshow and share the purpose and the reasons behind the formation of the ACECA.

Cheryl Robbins, and every founding member had the opportunity to introduce themselves.

We owe a special thanks to Gary Smoke for helping us to organize the event. Special thanks are owed to Jonathan Burke for taking video and photos of the event. Thank you also to Sophie Chang, Henry Liao, Tess Yeh, and other volunteers for making this event possible.

David Tsou, Senior Executive Officer of the Council  For Indigenous Peoples, Department of Planning, was a special guest speaker at the event. He introduced the ANZTEC agreement between New Zealand and Taiwan. He welcomed the formation of the ACECA, which he believes will be very helpful in developing projects that will promote indigenous relations between Taiwan and New Zealand.

Special guest speaker, David Tsou, of the Council For Indigenous Peoples