A Taiwanese Aboriginal children’s choir yesterday sang in Toronto at the Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Festival, their first performance at the six-day event, Canada’s largest multicultural celebration.
The Auba Rukai Children’s Choir, from Cingye Elementary School in Sandimen Township (三地門), Pingtung County, has been teaching and performing traditional Rukai songs for 15 years.
The choir has twice performed at the National Concert Hall in Taipei and was nominated at the Golden Melody Awards last year for Best Fusion Album.
Photo courtesy of Cingye Elementary School
More recently, the choir won acclaim at the International Festival of Sacred Music in Loreto, Italy.
The 19 children that the choir sent to Canada were having fun exploring the country, principal Lai Wei-chen (賴維振) said.
Cingye is a small school and almost all of the 40 pupils enrolled are of Rukai descent, he said.
Teacher Tang Hsiu-yueh (唐秀月) has been the choir’s indispensable language and singing instructor, Lai said, adding that the program is important because many of his school district’s Rukai parents no longer speak the Rukai language at home.
The choir is to hand festivalgoers samples of Aboriginal cuisine of abay and cinavu — millet-and-pork wraps — while there would also be crafts, such as glass beads and lily-themed trinkets, Tang said.
The first part of the festival tour was from Friday last week to yesterday at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, while the second is to take place from Saturday to Monday next week at venues near the Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza.
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