A US academic and a photographer who came to Taiwan in 2012 to carry out a project seeking to empower local Aboriginal children through art have seen the results of their efforts manifested in an exhibition of work by Atayal children that opened in Taipei earlier this week.
The exhibition, titled “I am Atayal!” showcases artworks ranging from photographs, murals and watercolor paintings to yarn, collages and clay pieces created by Atayal children from Nanao Elementary School in Yilan County.
It also introduces Atayal culture, myths and symbols, and shows how they have been incorporated into the school curriculum to promote learning and cultural pride.
Photo: CNA
The exhibition is the result of a 10-month project by Christine Yeh (葉晶), a professor of counseling psychology at the University of San Francisco, and Mikael Owunna, a photographer and English teaching assistant.
Yeh and Owunna arrived in Taiwan in 2012 on Fulbright scholarships, a grant funded by the US government for international educational exchanges.
From August 2012 to June last year, they designed and taught classes at Nanao Elementary School to help students appreciate and learn more about their cultural roots and identity.
For example, students were given disposable cameras to capture their everyday lives, learned Atayal words to describe themselves and legends that they then incorporated into their creations.
The Atayal language and culture is diminishing, Yeh said, estimating that only about 20,000 people out of the about 85,000-strong Atayal population still speak the language.
“So it’s really important for that next generation to take ownership of their culture and feel proud of it, so that it can continue,” said Yeh, whose work focuses on developing educational programs for youths who have been historically marginalized, using cultural empowerment and creative arts.
Jennifer Huang, a teacher at the school, said the project has helped students gain a deeper understanding of the Atayal culture and has increased their cultural pride.
“Now they know that the rhombic pattern represents the ‘eyes of the ancestors’ and that the color red represents warriors’ blood, passion and courage,” Huang said.
The exhibition opened on Monday and is to run until Aug. 31 at the National Taiwan Museum.
It will then be held at the Nanao Atayal Cultural Museum in September and in Aboriginal villages around Taiwan after that.
The exhibition is jointly organized by the National Taiwan Museum, the American Institute in Taiwan and the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan).
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
CHANGES: While NCCU opened the nation’s first co-ed dorm in Mucha, a recent survey showed that Taiwanese are in favor of abolishing gender segregation at high schools National Chengchi University (NCCU) has opened a co-ed dormitory, a first in Taiwan among state-funded Taiwan universities. The 22 duplexes are at the renovated “Huanan New Village,” in Taipei City’s Mucha (木柵) area, near the NCCU campus, a school official said yesterday. Twenty-two out of 37 group applications were selected in a lottery draw to select who would be chosen to live in the units, which can either be shared by up to eight students if the unit has four bedrooms, or up to 10 students if it is a five-bedroom unit, officials said. Completed in 1964 for campus staff housing,
RSS