For Ahronglong Sakinu, a Paiwan Aboriginal writer, learning the traditional wisdom of Aboriginal hunters and spreading this knowledge to children was a goal he had been working toward for many years.
Last year he realized his dream with the establishment of Taiwan's first Aboriginal hunting school.
At a recent seminar on Aboriginal cultures held by the Sung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, Sakinu shared with the public his thoughts and experiences in establishing the school.
"If only one day, we could have a school where children could be taught the relationship between the land, nature and people," Sakinu said. "If only one day, we could dwell happily with nature ... Such a paradise can be found at the hunting school."
In his books The Sage Hunter and Man Who Goes With The Wind, Sakinu describes how he learned about hunting and its culture from his father.
Humans should reside peacefully with nature and learn ways to manage and use natural resources as hunters do, he said.
The school, established last November in Taitung County's Taimali Township (太麻里), is not a traditional school where students sit in class and learn from books.
The school incorporates a small village, much like the one seen in the movie The Last Samurai, said Chou Chia-hui (周嘉慧), the editor of Sakinu's books.
In the movie, the children of the samurai village were taught the way of the samurai as part of their daily life.
The students who attend the hunting school will live in a village and experience firsthand how it is to be a true Aboriginal hunter, with school life incorporated with everyday life, Chou said.
Several Aboriginal schools have already contacted the hunting school and sampled it, although not yet the essence of the hunting lifestyle, she said.
In the future, organizers hope that Aboriginal children would be able to acquire a basic education at other schools before attending the hunting school to learn the traditional aspects of Aboriginal hunting life, Chou said.
Chou said that the school is not just about "hunting", but about the hunting culture, the process of hunting and the relationship between mankind and nature.
Sakinu said that he hoped to generate interest in environmental and cultural issues in the younger generation.
Sakinu is the first Aboriginal author to have his works included in junior high textbooks in this country. His book The Sage Hunter, was made into a movie last year.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS