傳統作為原住民族權利的重要元素，不過以往國內卻鮮少深入探討何謂傳統。爰此，本文旨在探索此一課題。具體而言，本文先檢視我國現行法規及法院判決如何使用「傳統」，進而參考加拿大法院的相關判決，探討加國對於傳統的判別標準。本文認為，四百餘年來，台灣原住民族曾各自在不同時間與不同外來族群接觸（如西班牙人、荷蘭人、漢人、日本人、新住民）；雖然這些外來族群對於各原住民族產生不同程度的影響，不過整體而言，對原住民族具有全面性影響的還是日本人，因為帝國主義、殖民政策及制度全面替代，導致許多原住民族傳統的斷裂。是此，本文主張以日本統治台灣起始的 1895年，作為界定原住民族傳統的時間點。

While the tradition is a key component of Indigenous rights, so far, there have been few enquiries into its meaning yet. In this article, we will look into how administrative practices and judicial ruling have employed Indigenous traditions. Efforts are made to examine those practices and criteria in Canadian courts. For the past four hundreds of years, the Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan have encountered various outsiders, who had left different imprints on Indigenous traditions. It is the Japanese imperialists who had ruptured these traditions by imposing colonial institutions. It is therefore suggest that we use 1895, when the Japanese rule began, as the cutting point of our traditions.