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Aboriginal tribes use new to preserve old

Cegaw, a school teacher in charge of the Hoping settlement computer station, teaches children how to browse the Internet. He prefers to wear traditional dress while teaching. PHOTO: DEBBY WU, TAIPEI TIMES

Rukai (魯凱族) village in Wutai town (霧台鄉), Pingtung County, appears like a typical Aboriginal settlement. The houses are built from sheets of slate and the small Catholic church, instead of pews, has chairs carved to look like seated Aborigines and, instead of the usual effigies, statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary dressed in traditional Rukai costumes.

A strong flavor of Aboriginal culture with sculptures and decorations permeate through the "homestays" and houses in the settlement. Images of Aboriginal life are scattered everywhere -- paintings on walls and wine pots dotted along the paths.

"But we have ruled that our tribe cannot raise dogs, pigs or chickens to keep the environment clean," said Tu Chuan (杜傳), the Wutai town chief. "There also cannot be karaoke activities after 10 in the evening to keep the area quiet."

It is a mixture of tradition and modernity: retaining the valuable cultural assets and chasing away the old habits that are frowned upon by contemporary society.

A statue "guards" a traditional house with slate sheetsing Wutai Township. Wutai officials are encouraging its residents to build houses with slate sheets, a special and precious resource of the area. PHOTO: DEBBY WU, TAIPEI TIMES

"We are encouraging Aboriginal tribes everywhere to build houses with modern interiors and facilities, yet with traditional exteriors and decoration, so that whenever an outsider walks into the settlement, he will immediately recognize it as an area inhabited by Aborigines," said Lin Chiang-i (林江義), director of the planning department at the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples.

"Right now it is very difficult to tell one tribe from another. Most tribes have lost their own identities and have similar appearances. We want to correct that, and help each tribe to rebuild their neighborhood with their original culture, so that people can identify the tribe easily when they walk into the area," Lin said.

The government-sponsored Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park (原住民文化園區) in Machia town, (瑪家鄉) close to Wutai, has a similar appeal.

The 82-hectare park preserves the traditional buildings from nine official Aboriginal tribes and shows each tribe's own dances and songs.

"We are careful about maintaining each tribe's own features and characteristics in the performances, unlike most shows you would see in the plains which now take a bit from every tribe and mix everything together," said Katohai (陳獻榮), director of the council's Bureau of Cultural Parks.

"What distinguishes us from the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village (九族文化村) is that while they have mixed different tribal features together to design entertaining programs for visitors, we insist on separating each tribe's features," Katohai said.

Last year President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration launched "Challenge 2008," a six-year national development program. One of the program's major tasks is to rebuild old communities and tribes using local resources.

With this policy in mind, the council proposed the "New Tribe Movement" (原住民新部落運動), which focuses on industrial development in the tribes and recovering their traditional appearances.

The council is also hoping to help Aboriginal youths get jobs in their hometowns.

"We hope to encourage the local people to take up the mission of recovering traditional cultures, get work and make money in their own tribe," Lin said.

However, some believe that this goal may be difficult to achieve.

"Sometimes you have to ask what kind of jobs the young people can do in the tribes," Tu said.

He pointed out that in Wutai, although they were trying to develop tourism, there were still restrictions on the number of tourists that could get the special permits needed to enter the area, and there were no laws allowing the tribes to charge tourists cleaning or management fees, as other scenic spots can. These factors all limit the development of tourism, Tu said.

"If the government can amend the law and set up response programs to help market and manage tourism in Wutai, it may help the young people return and find jobs here," Tu said.

A council official pointed out that the special permits were still necessary partly to prevent outsiders from smuggling Wutai's slate sheets, and there was also resistance from conservatives in the settlement against developing tourism and letting outsiders intrude into their homes.

While tribes grapple with the pros and cons of tourism and job-creation, the council has pressed ahead with plans to build a life-long learning environment for the Aborigines, especially bringing access to the Internet into the tribes.

On Saturday, in nearby Taiwu town (泰武鄉), council chairman Chen Chien-nien (陳建年) hosted the opening ceremony for a computer room for the Paiwan tribe's (排灣族) Hoping settlement (和平部落).

The council has picked 16 tribes from across the country as places suitable to install a small computer room with about 20 computers each. The rooms will usually be in the local gathering or activity center and will allow people to learn computer skills, especially how to get onto the Internet and link to the rest of the world. Hoping is the first settlement to get the computer room.

"Information technology can help Aborigines to catch up with other people because on the Internet everyone has an equal opportunity. No matter whether you are in the city or in the country, you see the same things on the Internet," Chen said. "With the Internet, Aboriginal people now can compete with other people on an equal basis."

Chen also used Cegaw (賴約翰) as an example to encourage local people to learn about information technology. Cegaw is a local school teacher who maintains a famous Web site on Paiwan culture (http://www.tacocity.com.tw/aliyan) and has won prizes for it. He is also in charge of the Hoping computer room.

During the ceremony, a female Paiwan priest performed a ritual asking for blessings from the gods and several groups performed songs and dances. The ceremony was aimed at welcoming new possibilities for the tribes of old.
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