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Published on Taipei Times http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2003/05/09/205319 Muted celebrations greet start of Aboriginal festival SARS has led to the postponement of much of what was slated to be the most comprehensive Taipei City Aboriginal Cultural Festival to date, but a photo exhibition will still go ahead
By Gavin Phipps
Now in its sixth year, the annual event was set to be the largest Taipei City Government Aboriginal Festival to date. It was intended to incorporate Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (台灣國際民族誌影展) performance groups representing Aboriginal peoples from China's Yunnan Province, in addition to representatives from Australasian Aboriginal cultures. "Obviously it's a huge blow, as organizing this year's event took a lot of work. And to see all that organizational work come to nothing is a real shame," said Judy Lin (林儷蓉), an assistant researcher with Taipei's Tourism Commission (臺北市政府觀光委員會). "There's obviously no way the groups could come here at present and we could continue with the festival as originally scheduled," she said.
For now, however, the month-long celebration of Aboriginal cultures will instead be a single event at the Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館). Whilst the cancellation is a blow to local Aboriginal groups who, according to the center's Wang Chin-fu (王進福), see the festival as both an educational and celebratory event, the center's Aboriginal photography exhibition -- set to open this Sunday, will go ahead regardless.
Taken by both professional and amateur photographers, the pictures on display will, Wang said, give visitors an interesting and colorful insight into the history and cultural heritage of all of the nation's 11 indigenous tribes. Located in Taipei's northern suburb of Peitou, the idea to create the capital's sole institute for Aboriginal studies was initiated by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during his tenure as Taipei mayor in May 1998. Opened to the public in November last year, the 10-story building is home to NGOs, an Aboriginal cultural studies center, an indigenous arts and crafts center, a small movie auditorium as well and three floors of exhibition space. Being the first Aboriginal festival since its' opening, the institute was to have been a showpiece for the event. The cancellations, however, now mean that the center is more than just a centerpiece. "As this was the first time the center was to play a role in the annual festival, we were hoping to play a significant part in and be a centerpiece for the festival," Wang said. "But with the present situation as it is, we have had to cancel the planned celebration of Pingbu peoples as well as the first cross-strait indigenous cultural exchange forum." As the sole center for Aboriginal studies in Taipei, however, the center hasn't been without its critics. Members of the Ketagalan tribe have complained that no members of the group were consulted during the museum's planning stages. Critics have also charged that past crimes against Aborigines have been ignored and even gone as far as to say that the center promotes the outdated idea of Aboriginal development under the Han Chinese rule. These are charges that Wang wholeheartedly denies, choosing instead to point to the center's continuing success at both attracting large numbers of visitors and being an important educational asset for all of the nation's Aboriginal peoples.
"Since we opened, the center has seen upwards of 20,000 visitors, which works out on average of up to 150 people per day," Wang said. "I believe what we are doing is both an educational asset and crucial to keeping Aboriginal culture alive in Taipei, which, is after all, a melting pot for all of Taiwan's Aboriginal peoples, regardless of tribe."
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