The Pingpu Plains Aborigines Association of Taiwan (
The activity was a part of the Taipei Indigenous Peoples Cultural Festival held by the Taipei City Indigenous Peoples Commission.
It was also the first time Pingpu Aborigines were invited to participate in the festival. Pingpu people are Taiwanese Aborigines who come from the plains. Many of the country's better known Aboriginal tribes come from the mountains.
Representatives of the Kavalan and Ketagalan, two of the 11 recognized plains tribes in Taiwan, attended the event.
"Pingpu people have not been assimilated by the Han people, although the government says they have. We are still here, and we need to stand up and walk our own way," said Jason Pan (
Commission director Kung Wen-chi (
"We hope this celebration can help improve understanding between other Aborigines and the Pingpu people," Kung said.
There were also two foreign representatives present at the celebration, Fijian Trade Representative Taina Tagicakibau and Raul Silvero Silvagni, deputy chief of the mission at the Paraguayan Embassy.
Tagicakibau said that there was a possibility that Fijian Aborigines would attend the festival next year and that she was talking with Kung about future cooperation.
Silvagni said that Aborigines made up a large proportion of the population in his country and there were many experiences that could be shared between two countries.
During the celebrations, each participating race gave performances of their traditional songs and dances. There was a Ketagalan-style lunch banquet and time for socialization among the tribes.
Pingpu cultural artifacts are on display in the Ketagalan Culture Center, behind the park, in an exhibition that ends today.
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