Perspectives of Indigenous Bridges

Anthonie Tumpag with his former Indonesian Gamelan instructor Pak Ngurah Kertayuda standing behind a gathering of canoes from the Indigenous Taiwanese, Philippines, and Indonesian cultures. Anthonie holds his miniature Tatala canoe pendant next to the Field Museum’s own small scale version of a Tatala from the Tao people. Earlier this summer, Anthonie Tumpag visited the Field Museum of Chicago where he took a personal behind-the-scenes tour of the museum's small collection of approximately 200 Indigenous Taiwanese artifacts that were collected and donated to the museum over the decades.      A few drawers containing indigenous Taiwanese artifacts from the Field Museum’s vaults Some materials in their collection were Paiwan weapons, Atayal textiles, basketry, jewelry, and also a few pieces from the Tao people such as a clay figurine of a pig and a small scale model of a Tatala canoe. Entryway to the Field Museum’s vaults including their extensive collection of 10,000 Phili...

  Over a three week period in July of 2022, the ATAYAL Organization facilitated an online cultural exchange event organized by Edu-Odyssey . The participants, which included two Indigenous Bridges Youth Ambassadors, brought together university and high school students in Taiwan to have meaningful, topic-oriented interactions with American students from Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas). The students had discussions in English and Chinese during their 1-hour sessions in breakout rooms using the Zoom platform, to provide more direct, personal exchanges. With the participation of the ATAYAL Organization, Directors Tony Coolidge and Gary Smoke organized a session dedicated to introducing Taiwan's Indigenous cultures to the American Students and Taiwanese students. Tony Coolidge shared a short presentation to the Taiwanese students and three youth ambassadors shared stories about their culture and what it meant to them to be of Indigenous lineage. While Syaman Lamuran shared ...