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Year-long Aboriginal festival begins in Beitou

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin, front left, and Taipei City's Indigenous Peoples Commission Chairwoman Drngi Alin yesterday light torches at an event in the Beitou Ketagalan Culture Center celebrating the culture of the Tsou tribe. PHOTO: CNA

A festival of 13 monthly rotating exhibitions, performances, lectures and hands-on activities showcasing the richness and diversity of Taiwanese Aboriginal cultures opened yesterday in Taipei.

The festival, organized by the Taipei City Government's Indigenous Peoples Commission, is being held at the Ketagalan Culture Center in Beitou District (北投).

The center is named after an Aboriginal tribe that once inhabited the Taipei metropolitan area.

The festival opened yesterday with the mayasvi ritual, the Tsou people's key ritual that honors the war god, organizers said.

The Tsou largely inhabit the Alishan (阿里山) area in Chiayi County and its culture is the focus of this month's exhibition.

"Each month, the festival will feature the culture of one of the nation's 13 officially recognized Aboriginal tribes," commission chairwoman Drngi Alin (Yang Hsin-yi, 楊馨怡) told participants yesterday.

In addition to dance and music, visitors will be able to watch depictions of Aboriginal myths by a theater troupe, attend lectures on Aboriginal cultural themes by specialists and make Aboriginal handicrafts, the organizers said in a press release.

"We hope that people ... will have a better understanding of each tribe's culture and social structure."

Drngi Alin, Indigenous Peoples Commission chairwoman

"In the past, we used to organize one-day cultural events like the harvest festival," Drngi said, "but that wasn't enough."

She said that the richness and diversity of Aboriginal cultures cannot be properly covered in one day.

"Through this event, we hope that people -- Aborigines and non-Aborigines alike -- will have a better understanding of each tribe's culture and social structure," Drngi said.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped that events like this could promote tourism in Taipei.

"Aboriginal cultures are important elements of Taipei's culture," Hau said, dressed in the outfit of a Tsou warrior. "We can promote tourism with events such as this."

The festival runs through March next year at the Ketagalan Culture Center at No. 3-1 Zhongshan Rd, Beitou District (北投區中山路3-1號).
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