Voice of a people sings for the nation

By David Momphard
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jan 14, 2005, Page 13

In the oral tradition of the Puyuma, in Taitung's Nanwang Village, women often play the role of the sage, imparting timeless wisdom to the children and even the men of the tribe. Puyuma singer Samingad (紀曉君) knows just how highly the elder women of her tribe are respected; she's seen the respect given her grandmothers and, despite her youth, she's getting her own fair share of it, too.

At just 27, Samingad has already earned a Golden Melody Award for Best Newcomer, and sang the National Anthem at last year's presidential inauguration. Her latest honor comes next week, when she'll set out for Cannes, France, to represent the nation at the high-profile international music-industry conference and market known as MIDEM. Though Taiwan has participated in the event in the past, this is the first year it has been asked to arrange a performance.

To celebrate the occasion, and to give all of us in Taiwan a preview of her Cannes performance, Samingad will perform tonight at Ximending's Red Theater.

Aboriginal singer and Golden Melody Award winner Samingad performs tonight at the Red Theater in Ximending. PHOTOS COURTESY OF MAGIC STONE RECORDS

"Of course it's an honor," Samingad told the Taipei Times, "but I feel like there's also a lot of responsibility to do well, both for Taiwan and for the Puyuma people."

In a way, she's has spent all her life preparing for next week's gig. Samingad, whose name means "without equal" was born into a family of musicians and learned to sing sitting on her grandmother's knee. She won her Golden Melody Award in 2000 for her album, Voices of the Puyuma (太陽 風 草原的聲音). Her uncle, Taiwan's "singing policeman," Pau-dull (陳建年), also won a Golden Melody Award for Best Songwriter for penning one of the tracks on that album, Fairy Tale (神話).

Samingad out not only for the strength of her voice, but for composing the majority of her music in her native Puyuma language. After winning her Golden Melody Award, she returned to Taitung to visit her mumu, the grandmother who taught her to sing, to continue learning traditional Puyuma songs. Two years later, her efforts earned her a second Golden Melody nomination, this time as the Best Non-Chinese Female Vocalist for her album Wild Fire, Spring Wind (野火春風).

The name Puyuma means "solidarity" and Samingad says she owes her success not only to the members of her family, but to her extended Puyuma family and the several Aboriginal musicians with whom she grew up.

She has for years fronted the band A-minor, or the AM Band (Am樂團), a group of Aboriginal musicians from Southern Taiwan formed in 1993 and named for the chord popular in Aboriginal music.

The band struggled for years playing clubs and pubs in Taipei, while Samingad supported herself working odd jobs.

One those jobs was waiting tables at an Aboriginal bar in Taipei called Driftwood Cafe, where she would fill in for other musicians who had cancelled. She was soon "discovered" and her first album, Voice of the Puyuma, was released.

A-minor inked their first deal and pressed their first CD, A-minor: Until the Sunrise (Am到天亮). Though it has changed lineup over the years, "AM Family," as the band is known, are frequent performers in China and Japan -- the result of a critically acclaimed performance in Japan in 1999 with Taiwan's Difand Duana, of Enigma's Return to Innocence fame.

Asked the success she's enjoyed has changed her life, Samingad ruminates before answering.

"Some things are different," she says, "but much of my life -- who I am -- is the same."

She says she still performs at the Driftwood Cafe and Peshawar, another Aboriginal cafe near Taiwan Normal University. And though she spends most of her time in Taipei, her thoughts remain with the people closest to her back in Taitung.

Like uncle Pau-dull, who, after gaining fame as a singer-songwriter, continued to work as a policeman, Samingad says staying close to her roots and keeping her life simple are part and parcel of her music. The dress she wore to last year's presidential inauguration, for example, a modified traditional Puyuma gown, was a gift her mother made by hand.

It could hardly be otherwise. Samingad's music draws its inspiration from the oral traditions about hunting and agricultural life passed through generations and from the plight of a people alienated from their own home.

"They're songs my grandmother has taught me," Samingad said. "Some of them are songs in themselves and some have been made into songs from chants she taught me when I was young."

It's an oral tradition that had to be stringently maintained, given that the Puyuma had no written language. Samingad, while not among the pantheon of Mando-pop stars, has nonetheless become idolized in her home community for having kept that oral tradition beautifully and vibrantly alive.

She's also gained the appreciation of her musical peers. Popular Aboriginal singer and human-rights activist Kimbo Hu (胡德夫) once said of Samingad that "she had a young person's outward appearance, but the heart of a grandmother."

Performance notes:

WHO: Samingad and AM Family

WHAT: MIDEM Preview Concert

WHEN: Tonight at 7:30pm

WHERE: Red Theater (紅樓劇場), 10 Chengdu Rd, Ximending, Taipei (台北市成都路10號)

TICKETS: General tickets cost NT$600. Tickets for NT$1,000 get copies of a Samingad album and a Taiwan Colors Music compilation. Both are available at the door.