**2. IK, SESs, and Tribal Resilience**

Environmental and anthropogenic factors affect indigenous societies through increasing disaster risks [12,13]. Resilience is "the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feed backs" [14] (p. 4). The most important mission is to develop sound social and cultural values with the traditional way of life in order to realize community development toward more sustainability and less waste in the contemporary world [12].

Many researchers have assessed those communities or tribes that have embraced indigenous knowledge have managed to save lives and property, and utilized disaster risks analysis to complement and expand scientific knowledge on reducing vulnerability [15–19]. In many discussions about the indigenous knowledge system, concepts and definitions are often used interchangeably, such as indigenous knowledge (IK), traditional knowledge (TK), local knowledge (LK), and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Indigenous knowledge is the unique knowledge confined to a particular culture or society that has evolved all the time [20–25]. It is not just a kind of knowledge, but also the practical experience and skills of indigenous life. In the 1960s, there was an "Anti-Mainstream" movement in Western developed research on "Oriental," "original," and "local" cultural knowledge [21]. Thus, this kind of knowledge is available and working in local tribes. IK is often regarded as

static, simple, and primitive [22,23]. While in many instances the term TEK is used, "IK is broader than ecological knowledge and better reflects the holistic worldviews that often underpin IK systems" [24,26]. Indigenous spirituality, man-land relationship, and the managing of resources are included in IK and presented in tribal members' regulations and cultures. In many cases, exploiting IK can mitigate and reduce disaster risks. We therefore use the term IK in discussing the related research, except when citing literature that specifically uses other terms.

Resilience in ecology was first applied to the ability of a stable state to return to its usual environmental standard after degradation and overdevelopment [27]. When used in tribes, it can be the reconstruction paradigms of responses to disaster damage and vulnerability. The Tayal people are able to deal with hazards through the gaga (work together, sharing together) of IK. Resilience concerns environmental, economic, and social dimensions [28] that are relevant to IK and closely interact in social systems and the ecosystem [29] in a tribal society. Therefore, reconstruction actions should be established that are based on the concerns of IK and organized according to their needs and resilience within a tribe.

By reviewing much of the recent papers on IK, the useful cultural knowledge and social knowledge have been seen by many as an alternative way of providing disaster relief, reconstructing, and reducing disaster risks. Rapid environmental changes and potential environmental disasters have been caused by the development of foreign colonization and capitalization in the Wulai area. Howitt [30] proposed to consider more about the resilience, vulnerability, and adaptation of tribes' geopolitics under climate change and indigenous historical colonization. Building a resilient society requires a dynamic process in SESs thought [31–34]. Thus, tribal resilience needs to build upon the environmental, economic, and social aspects, which are the core concepts of social-ecological systems (SESs).

The development and strategic improvement in the ecological environment indeed reinforce the ability to adapt to environmental changes through the diversity of the participants in reorganizing [35–38]. The less resilient the system is, the lower is the capacity to sustain humans' well-being in the face of complexity and change. Olsson et al. [39] argue that adaptability among actors is needed to reinforce and sustain the desired socialecological state and to make it resilient to future change and unpredictable events. Moreover, Olsson et al. [39] found adaptive governance is the approach to rising community self-management abilities and endogenous development on an economy. These can be done by important leaders who organize and transit in the processes [40].

SESs are inherently complex, but no one theoretical perspective is sufficient to analyze all feasible situations. McGinnis and Ostrom (2014) proposed a revised "social-ecosystem framework" that has gradually been spread internationally for empirical research applications [41–45]. Research pointed out that the local knowledge of SESs generated from local cultural and historical experiences has an important ability to adapt to the impact of disasters or climate change [46–48]. However, some scholars questioned SESs. For example, Colding and Barthel [49] reviewed the SESs literature spanning two decades and pointed out that many papers had an unclear definition of SESs and concept of "society." Therefore, researchers have also focused on what and how the Tayal society exhibit cooperation and social resilience during disaster relief.

### **3. Research Method**

#### *3.1. Research Area*

The research site has been struck by many typhoons and is a part of the Wulai indigenous tribes in northern Taiwan. The Wulai District of New Taipei City is an indigenous tourism scenic attraction and very near Taipei City, the metropolitan capital of Taiwan. In 2016, it had a population of 6187, covering 321 square kilometers. There are four tribes here and it is one of the earliest indigenous townships that Taiwan developed for tourism since the 1950s. The geographical landscape terrain features of Wulai are such as canyons, river valleys, cliffs, waterfalls, mountains, and rivers. Indigenous people comprise the main

population, although more Han people presently inhabit this area. Hot springs, cable cars, forests, cherry blossoms, rhododendrons, ferns, Tayal culture, and a miniature train are tourist resources. The richly natural and cultural environment makes Wulai a famous place for sightseeing and leisure [50].

The use of hot springs (only for police and faculty) in the Wulai area can be traced back to the period when Japan governed Taiwan around the end of the 19th century [51]. After Japan withdrew following World War II, more and more households used water pumps to extract hot spring water. During that period, areas near the train station were filled with souvenir shops and hawkers taking photos for tourists, packing the area with people. Ever since the gondola opened in the Wulai area in 1967, tourists have been taking the train to Wulai to see the waterfall, and tourism business activities have flourished. With the popularity of mass tourism in the 1980s, waterfall viewing and the gondola tours brought a lot of tourists from Taipei's metropolitan area [52].

In the late 20th century, as citizens of the capital invaded the mountain area, the Tayal people were forced to leave their hometown. Riyueguang and Julong Mountain Villa introduced hot spring water to Chungchi, 2 km away from the river, and the Ogawa Yuen hotel on Wulai Street (Wulai tribe) introduced Japanese professional hot spring equipment. In the 1990s, the government began promoting hot spring tourism and building infrastructure and facilities in the Wulai area, which showed that government promotion of tourism policies encouraged Wulai to use its hot spring resources to increase tourism income, which achieved a solution for regional development. The hot spring hotel industry brought the economies of Wulai and Chungchi more closely integrated with the tourism industry. Tourism activities that already were the livelihood of the local people also brought forth many tourism impacts. A lot of luxury hot spring hotels flourished in the Wulai area in the 2000s.

In Wulai District, the Wulai, Lahaw, and Fushan tribes are located in the upstream, midstream, and downstream of Nanshi River, as shown in Figure 1. The Wulai tribe is the closest to downtown Taipei City in the Nanshi River basin, which has led to compressed space and rapid tourism industry flows. The capitalism and crowds of people from urban areas have all been influential in altering the original state of the Wulai tribe. With the advent of capitalism and consumption, the indigenous people have come to realize they must share their tribal space with tourists and display items that visitors like to see in order to earn money especially in the Wulai tribe. This conclusion resonates with what Edensor advocated that tourism is a process consisting of unseen behavioral patterns and actual space reconstruction. Embedded in the host-visitor context, this process has enhanced the influence of mainstream tourism on indigenous areas. This is deemed as a consumptive phenomenon of indigenous commodification; hence, the area is split into front-stage and back-stage spaces, as suggested by Goffman [53]. The front-stage space (Wulai tribe) is where the hosts (indigenous people) meet consumers; whereas the back-stage space (Lahaw and Fushan tribes) is the area where indigenous people live. In other words, the lent-out area is in the downstream part of the Nanshi River basin, which the tourists can easily approach via transportation, while the back-stage area is around the midstream and upstream of the Nanshi River basin where IK and cultures are better preserved.

**Figure 1.** The location of Wulai, Lahaw, and Fushan tribes in New Taipei City.

#### *3.2. Conceptual Framework*

Secondary data collection was from a comprehensive review of literature using publications from scientific articles, papers, and reports after the tribes' areas were severely damaged, and contained findings from one year of observations in the three-year Ministry of Science and Technology project "Changes of Indigenous Livelihood, Place Bonding and the Social Space Model of Subjectivity (2014–2016)" [54]. According to the disaster prevention plan data [55], recent events in the area were mainly sloping disasters caused by Typhoon Sula in 2012 and Typhoon Soudelor in 2015, each of which had accumulated rainfall of 577 mm/day and 710 mm/day, respectively. The rivers in the Wulai area subsequently soared, moving higher than the embankments and bridges and causing many roads to be cut off. Although it is found that the distribution of landslides is approximately consistent with downhill in the Wulai area, indigenous tribes are generally impacted by environmental processes both non-anthropogenically and anthropogenically at all spatial scales.

During Typhoon Soudelor, the heavy rains in the Wulai area caused the Wusha River to soar and the streams and sands rushed over the bridge deck. The Dana Resort Farm located in the upper reaches of the Wushaxi Bridge was completely destroyed in this mudslide, and a total of 14 houses were impacted or buried by mud and rock. The rushing flow of water caused many collapses along the banks of the bridge, and mud and sand flooded into the hot springs hall and parking lot. Beside the waterfall park, a thick layer collapsed in the soil and rock interface, causing damage to a household that was almost buried. The collapse of earth and boulders caused traffic disruption to Huanshan Road. The lower slope of Route 9 collapsed, resulting in a 70-m roadbed gap. The collapse of the back slope of Wulai School caused the collapse of the school playground. Damages impacted the Wulai tribe (front-stage) and also disrupted roads to the Lahaw and Fushan tribes (back-stage). Given the severe damaged, 2000 Wulai residents were evacuated. About 1100 residents were reluctant to leave their homes, but the food shortage problem was affecting those trapped without any connection to the outside world.

Tribal resilience in providing disaster relief in a social ecological system after Typhoon Soudelor often has synergies with several elements of adaptive capacity operating at different scales. The Wulai tribes returned to their original self-sufficiency life when their water, electricity, roads, and communications were all interrupted due to the damage of landslides.

The above dimensions practiced within SESs for providing disaster relief in the interview context were identified into four significant general categories: cooperation, food resilience, social resilience, and indigenous tourism preparedness. For the Wulai tribes, SESs may make use of the disaster as a chance to transform into a more sustainable state. In

particular, IK continues to play a major part in the formation of many of these action sectors. By Tayal IK providing disaster relief, the indigenous people organized themselves with their traditional values and regulations and explored various paths in their reconstruction processes of environmental, social, and economic dimensions. These endogenous actions highlight the role of life sustaining (food), economy, and social resilience, and also show how IK reinforces the Wulai tribes' connectedness and collectiveness. It is this collective the gaga that the Tayal people draw upon to help cope with the social ecological system and offensive and defensive alliances that affect tribal society. They encompass the main strategy for which the Tayal people in the Nanshi River basin reduced disaster risks based on their traditional knowledge. The conceptual framework is shown in Figure 2.

**Figure 2.** The endogenous reconstructing works in SESs for tribal resilience based on IK.
