**1. Introduction**

Most indigenous people living in geographically high-risk areas suffer vulnerabilities to the risks of climate change [1]. Rainfall patterns have suddenly changed, while the climate change has increased the frequency and scale of rainfall-induced landslides. A typhoon is one of Taiwan's most hazardous disasters in Taiwan and causes considerable loss of life and property [2–6]. Its extremely torrential rainfall causes floods, landslides, and mudslides in indigenous tribes' regions, especially economically over-developed areas. After disasters occur, people adopt the thinking of recuperation and land conservation, yet the capacity of a social-ecological system (SES) to resilience is derived from indigenous knowledge, which is increasingly gaining international attention as a way to combat climate change [1]. By focusing on indigenous and local knowledge, one can broaden the level of knowledge existing within tribes that are impacted by environmental hazards.

Climate events contribute to the occurrence of disasters, and the combination of environmental hazard and vulnerability exposes indigenous tribes to potentially dangerous settings [7]. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) [8] has acknowledged the importance of indigenous knowledge, and land resource management practices should engage traditional wisdom from them. One may disengage from environmental hazards by recognizing, and promoting traditional knowledge (TK)

**Citation:** Lee, S.-H.; Chen, Y.-J. Indigenous Knowledge and Endogenous Actions for Building Tribal Resilience after Typhoon Soudelor in Northern Taiwan. *Sustainability* **2021**, *13*, 506. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020506

Received: 1 December 2020 Accepted: 30 December 2020 Published: 7 January 2021

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coping mechanisms, which can also build the capacity of recovering relief in an indigenous area [9]. This paper emphasizes on indigenous knowledge and proposes its important significance at affording the practice of SES for providing disaster relief. In August 2015, Typhoon Soudelor dropped total accumulated rainfall of nearly 800 mm and caused over 100 landslide collapses in the Wulai area of northern Taiwan. Espeso-Molinero and Pastor-Alfonso argued that "each socio-ecosystem will have its own ways of developing resilience and so a specific in-depth study of each case is required" [10] (p. 657). The aim of this study is to explore the processes, the resilience after typhoon disaster, and interaction during post-disaster reconstruction through indigenous knowledge (IK) of the Wulai tribes in Northern Taiwan.

According to the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law [11], a tribe refers to a group of indigenous persons who form a community by living together in specific areas of the indigenous peoples' regions and follow traditional norms with the approval of the central indigenous authority. The Tayal tribes are small-scale communities based on mutualism in Taiwan. The social actions during disaster relief initiated within the Wulai tribes (endogenous) are automatically instigated by themselves, instead of outsiders or local government (exogenous). Endogenous actions based on the Tayal gaga (social regulations and cultures) and Qutux Niqan (sharing groups) of IK make up their traditional culture. The Wulai tribes launched the Qutux Niqan to maintain people's lives, tribal social functions, and more importantly tribal cooperation, food resilience, social resilience, and indigenous tourism preparedness under the Tayal gaga for resilience. There are also interconnections between IK and other aspects, including environmental management, social values, and beliefs. IK is dynamic and adapted in a disaster from indigenous holistic worldviews.

To explore tribal resilience-building actions, this research used in-depth interviews from post-disaster reconstructing cases in three tribes (Wulai, Lahaw, and Fushan), populated along Nanshi River, in response to natural hazards and endogenous actions by the indigenous peoples. We illustrate the impacts of Social-Ecological Systems (SESs) on endogenous actions of IK after a typhoon in the Wulai area. The research problematic issues are as follows. (1) How did the Tayal people initiate co-operative endogenous actions under indigenous knowledge? (2) What is the social resilience in post-disaster reconstruction? (3) What is the food resilience in post-disaster reconstruction? (4) What economic recovery actions were adapted after disaster? To answer these questions, this paper categorizes these actions during the post-disaster into a broader level of endogenous (launched from within the tribes) actions of Tayal IK in the Wulai tribes where they subsist, develop, and build inter-ethnic relations based on the nature and environment.
