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 Philippine arti

  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