“Woo, woo...” Chiu Yao-wei, a young Bunun hunter, had been hunting in the mountainous area near the Southern Cross-Island Highway for days. With a big mountain deer on his back, he could not muster any more strength to go any further, and so in the middle of the mountain, he called out to his fellow villagers for assistance.
On Thursday last week at Beinan Cultural Park, Chiu presented the hunting culture of the Bunun people with his voice, showing that even in a state of sheer physical exhaustion, Bunun hunters can still project a sonorous voice that resonates through valleys. Hearing it, the audience could not help but feel moved and had an intense urge to climb up the mountain to help him carry the prey.
Chiu is a third-year student in the class for artistically-talented Aboriginal students at Taitung County’s National Guan-shan Vocational Senior High School. In terms of academic performance, he can almost be said to have a learning disability. Although he has trouble using words to express himself, his songs and paintings are bold and imaginative, especially when it comes to Bunun’s hunting culture, about which he has a wealth of knowledge to share.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報黃明堂
In one of his hunting paintings, his father carries a mountain deer on his back, with a deer in a basket; his father leans forward, driving himself hard to move forward, with a little hound trailing behind. This painting draws upon Chiu’s memories of hunting with his father. Since his fifth year in elementary school, he has belonged to the hunting ground in the high mountains around the Southern Cross-Island Highway. Each year in May, the hunting season begins.
Although Chiu is a rugged young hunter, his brush strokes are delicate and detailed, which he uses to depict his father’s hunting expeditions. His work is so vivid that even his instructor Lin Chien-cheng finds it incredible.
The school’s library director Wei Shang-pin said, in the class for artistically-talented Aboriginal students there are about a dozen students who, just like Chiu, have learning disabilities, but they live in Aboriginal villages and acquire skills from the village elders. In fact, these students are very talented, especially in the arts, where they shine and thrive; their learning accomplishments cannot be measured by normal academic standards, says Wei.
(Liberty Times, translated by Ethan Zhan)
「嗚嗚…」布農族少年獵人邱耀偉在南橫山區打獵多日,背著一隻大山鹿下山,實在走不動了,在山腰高呼請部落族人趕來幫忙。
邱耀偉上週四在卑南文化公園用歌聲唱出了布農族人的狩獵文化,表現出獵人在渾身無力的情況下,仍能發出迴盪山谷的渾厚嗓音。聞者莫不感動,有股想要衝上山幫忙扛獵物的衝動。
邱耀偉是台東縣關山工商原住民藝能班高三的學生,以學業而論,他幾乎是學習障礙,無法用文字來表達,但用歌聲,用繪畫,卻能天馬行空,特別是談到布農族的狩獵,如數家珍。
他的一張獵人畫中,是父親背著一隻山鹿,裝在簍子裡,斜身奮力前行,後方跟著小獵犬。這幅畫,是他跟著父親打獵時的記憶。從國小五年級開始,他就屬於南橫高山的獵場,每年五月是打獵季節。
這樣粗獷的少年獵人,卻有著細膩的筆調,刻畫出父親打獵的情景。作品之生動,連授課老師林建成也感到不可思議。
關山工商圖書館主任魏尚斌說,關山工商原藝班有十多位學生,大都跟邱耀偉一樣,在學業上有障礙,但他們生活在部落,傳承到長輩的技能,其實很有天賦,特別是在藝術表現上,很讓人刮目相看;對於他們的學習成果,不能以一般課業標準來評定。
(自由時報黃明堂)
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