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The best of all worlds

By Noah Buchan
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Apr 11, 2008, Page 13

Topics for discussion at the 2008 World Summit of Indigenous Cultures include indigenous environmental wisdom and protection of Mother Nature, indigenous belief systems, and developing indigenous enterprise. PHOTO COURTESY OF TICEDA

Alice Takewatan (林秋妹) contemplated an Aboriginal sculpture symbolizing a shattered earth as she waited for Amis (阿美) musicians to respond to her entreaties to play at a music festival.

“I wanted them to come [to the concert] and sing but they said, ‘No, that’s our song and we don’t want to sing it for anyone else,’” said Takewatan, who is from the Bunun (布農) tribe. “So I pointed to [the sculpture] and said the earth is broken and that this song is necessary to put it back together,” she said.

The elderly musicians eventually relented and agreed to sing a sacred song in front of an audience for the first time ever as part of Soaring Melodies: An Evening of Indigenous Song and Dance, a three-hour concert to be held on Sunday as part of the 2008 World Summit of Indigenous Cultures.

The summit, organized by Taiwan Indigenous Cultural Enterprise Development Association (TICEDA) — of which Takewatan is chairwoman — draws together indigenous peoples from around the world for five days of seminars, lectures, a concert and tour of Taiwan’s Aboriginal villages. The summit begins tomorrow.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TICEDA

Takewatan said the musical performance has two purposes: to expose local audiences to Taiwan’s Aboriginal culture; and to accustom Aborigines to performing in front of an audience.

“When we are with the tribe, there is no audience because we just perform directly for the earth and directly for ourselves. So this is a way for us to show [tribal members] how to perform in front of an audience,” she said.

Summit notes: What: 2008 World Summit of Indigenous Cultures Where: Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店), Taipei City; International Convention Center, Taipei County Hall (台北縣政府國際會議中心), 5F, 161, Jhongshan Rd Sec 1, Banciao City, Taipei County (台北縣板橋市中山路一段161號5F) When: Tomorrow, Sunday and Monday Details: Admission is free for foreigners bearing a valid passport, but attendees must pre-register at indigenous.pristine.net, under the section titled “Invitation”

Sunday night’s concert has three parts. The first, Voices of the Ancestors, features Aboriginal stories and legends told through song. Indigenous peoples participating in the summit from other countries are also encouraged to take the stage and share songs from their tribes.

Tales of the Mountains and the Seas is the second theme and is a selection of Aboriginal songs, updated and played by Taiwanese musicians who have studied in the West. Takegawan hopes including non-Aboriginal Taiwanese musicians in the program will make local audiences more interested in Aboriginal music.

Concert notes: What: Soaring Melodies: An Evening of Indigenous Song and Dance Where: Taipei County Government Building (台北縣政府多功能禮堂), 3F, 161, Jhongshan Rd Sec 1, Banciao City, Taipei County (台北縣板橋市中山路一段161號) When: Sunday at 7pm Tickets: NT$450 and are available through Roundtable

Rounding out the concert is Melody of Flight, which combines song with dance and is followed by an Aboriginal fashion show.

After the concert there is a three-day, two-night tour of Aboriginal villages. The tour, called Three Suns and Two Moons — Tour to Taiwan’s Indigenous Villages (三個太陽兩個月亮 — 福爾摩沙部落巡禮), offers the chance to experience Aboriginal culture in a more laid-back setting. The tour is open to the public.

Tour notes: What: Three Suns and Two Moons — Tour to Taiwan’s Indigenous Villages Where: Southern and southeastern Taiwan When: April 15 to April 17 Tickets: NT$4,500 for two nights and three days includes accommodation and meals. To register, visit indigenous.pristine.net and click on the “Invitation” link

“My wish is that when people come to Taiwan they’ll see these different tribes and how they live and see the relationship these tribes have with nature,” she said.

On the itinerary for the first day: a visit to southern Taiwan’s Paiwan (排灣) and Rukai (魯凱) tribal villages, with a stop at a traditional glass bead studio that will shed light on the social hierarchies of these tribes.

“The Paiwan and the Rukai have a royalty system that is not political but cultural,” Takewatan said. “The cultural elements of indigenous communities are not preserved in books because they cannot read, but are encoded in their songs and their dances. This is preserved through their weaving, carving and singing.”

Taitung’s National Museum of Prehistory (國立臺灣史前文化博物館), Taitung Hunter School (台東獵人學校) and Mountain Boar University (山豬大學) make up the second day’s itinerary. Participants will see how hunting knowledge is passed from generation to generation, as well as how elders pass on their tribe’s history and ways of thinking through storytelling.

The third day finds participants following the East Rift Valley (花東縱谷) to experience the Bunun tribe’s Pasibutbut, a ceremonial song sung to ensure an abundant millet harvest. The song is famous among music aficionados for the complexity of its harmonies.

A look at wetlands conservation efforts by the Mataian community of the Amis tribe follows the Bunun harvest song. Visitors will also experience Amis fishing culture, followed by a traditional song and dance performed by Amis elders.

“There is a lot of wisdom among the indigenous people on how to live,” Takewatan said. “And now that things have gone wrong, and we are in the same boat together, it’s time to look to the indigenous peoples, study their way of thinking, and see if we can slow things down.”


Interview with Philip Diller, Director of International Affairs, Taiwan Indigenous Cultural Enterprise Development Association


Taipei Times: How did the summit come about?

Philip Diller: Alice Takewatan was invited to a summit in the US ... in 2004 that was put on by a nonprofit [organization] called Atayal — they also had the same vision of inviting indigenous people from around the world and having indigenous people talk. And this, for us, is the important thing — it is tribe meeting tribe.

TT: Why hold the summit in Taiwan?

PD: One of the [ideas] is to promote Taiwan. And it’s promoting Taiwan to Taiwanese people. I mean, do you people realize the amazing island you live on? And the other thing is [promoting Taiwan] to the world. We’ve discovered in the last few years that all the indigenous peoples from the Pacific islands started off in Taiwan.

TT: Why have you added the [Three Suns and Two Moons] tour to the summit?

PD: There are several reasons for that. As I mentioned before, the modality of communication: one of them is the papers and the summit. You write your abstract and you submit your paper and it’s judged, and you put on your tie and go on the stage, and there are people out in the audience, and you give your speech and you clap, and that’s the mainstream culture’s way of doing things.

TT: How does the indigenous way differ?

PD: One thing that we are talking about, because we are addressing the crisis of the world and everything that we are doing is that way, but we also want to do it another way. The other way is the powwow way where people sit and talk, where people stand up and dance for a while, people exchange ideas, and village elders come and talk about their problems and make decisions the old way. So it’s more direct and it’s more community.

So you have all these people coming to Taiwan, coming to a summit and putting on their tie and talking on a stage. But they are also going to go into Aboriginal villages and exchanging their message there. So they are going to give their message at the summit and they are going to exchange it in a freer way in the villages.

[This interview has been condensed and edited]
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