Indigenous people along Taiwan’s east coast are struggling financially after being displaced one year on from the deadly earthquake that shook the region.
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00:0069-year-old Zhu Xiaolan has spent much of her life hiking up and down these mountains
00:07along Taiwan's east coast.
00:14But a year ago, on April 3rd, she was forced to see her ancestral home from a new angle
00:20after being airlifted to safety when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Hualien County.
00:26The tremor, and the landslides it triggered, killed at least 18 people.
00:41Members of the mostly mountain-dwelling Truku indigenous group, numbering some 30,000, Zhu
00:46and her family used to earn a living guiding tourists around their village.
00:50But everything changed after the quake.
01:08A year later, and Zhu is still working as a street cleaner.
01:12But as government-sponsored temp work, it's not a permanent solution.
01:16Zhu is far from the only member of her community uprooted by the quake.
01:21People from indigenous villages across the county came down from their rural mountain
01:25homes to more urban areas like this old street to find work, so they can continue earning
01:31an income to support their families.
01:35Before the quake, Ooming Loking worked at a hotel inside Taroko National Park, where
01:40many of the most devastating landslides took place.
01:44After its closure, Ooming, with some other young members of his indigenous community,
01:49decided to open a cafe outside the park, to continue their mission of keeping the culture
01:54of the Truku people alive.
02:16Business owner Garau has been a representative for his community for years.
02:21Before the quake, he was working with the local government to build new access paths
02:25to his people's remote villages, but he says that since the disaster, indigenous communities
02:30are feeling left behind.
02:52The government-sponsored temp work that has been supporting Zhu and many other indigenous
02:56people across Hualien is set to end within months, with no news yet of extensions.
03:02In the face of financial uncertainties, and after being forced out of their homes, this
03:07community has come to rely on each other, to make it through one of the worst natural
03:11disasters in living memory.
03:14Chris Ma, Geoffrey Chen and Rhys Ayres in Hualien for Taiwan Plus.