Following world trends, the government of Taiwan is paying more attention in recent years to providing a degree of autonomy to the island’s indigenous peoples. As with many policy initiatives, the government is looking abroad for a blueprint, and Canada is the Western country that is often promoted as a viable model to follow. The purpose of this work is to examine the historical and cultural influences of how each nation has treated its indigenous population and, given these variances, identify roadblocks to Taiwan’s successful implementation of a mechanism for deriving aboriginal self-government agreements based on the Canadian example, as well as to propose policy recommendations on what direction relevant legislation should take. / Following world trends, the government of Taiwan is paying more attention in recent years to providing a degree of autonomy to the island’s indigenous peoples. As with many policy initiatives, the government is looking abroad for a blueprint, and Canada is the Western country that is often promoted as a viable model to follow. The purpose of this work is to examine the historical and cultural influences of how each nation has treated its indigenous population and, given these variances, identify roadblocks to Taiwan’s successful implementation of a mechanism for deriving aboriginal self-government agreements based on the Canadian example, as well as to propose policy recommendations on what direction relevant legislation should take.