Perspectives of Indigenous Bridges

Huang Bi-Mei   Huang, Bi-Mei Wisdon-Keeper and Practitioner of Women's Songs and Dances DongqingVillage, Orchid Island  Hailing from Dongqing Village, Huang Bi-Mei is a vital bearer of women's cultural heritage on Lanyu. For decades, she has devoted herself to the transmission of ceremonial songs and dances, playing a key role in local women's groups and serving as a living repository of language, ritual, and embodied cultural memory. Through her leadership, she guides younger generations to understand the deeper cultural contexts behind Lanyu's melodies, movements, and oral expressions, ensuring that her community’s embodied traditions live on. Born into a respected canoe-building family, she also participated as a family member in the making of Si Mangavang, the great plank canoe of Dongqing Village. She witnessed firsthand the collective strength behind the vessel—from the gathering of timber to its construction, blessing ceremonies, and eventual launching. Although ...

Si Rojiang (Huang, Guang-de)   Si Rojiang (Huang, Guang-de) Master Canoe Builder Dongqing Village, Orchid Island  Huang Guang-De, an elder from a renowned canoe-building family of the Tao (Yami) people in Dongqing Village, Orchid Island (Lanyu 蘭嶼), is one of the few remaining traditional artisans on the island who fully master the construction of tatala (plank-built canoes). With profound indigenous knowledge and a deep connection to nature, he personally sources timber from the mountains and tests his vessels in the ocean, preserving the Tao's seafaring culture where canoes are considered part of the family. Huang has successfully voyaged across the Kuroshio Current from Orchid Island (Lanyu 蘭嶼) to Taitung in a handcrafted canoe, retracing the ancestral maritime routes of his people. In recent years, he has actively participated in international cultural collaborations, including joining the Taiwan Outrigger Canoe Club (TOCC) in a canoe-building project with two master builde...

Here is a photo of the traditional decorations on the tatala   Dan Long, a long-time teacher and administrator in Taipei American School, has loaned his tatala to the ATAYAL organization. We thank Mr. Long for this long-term loan. A tatala is a canoe from the Lanyü (Orchid Island) of Taiwan that is used by the native Tao peoples. Right now, the canoe is located in Charleston, South Carolina. Our goal is to move the tatala to the Seattle area in order to participate in the annual Tribal Canoe Journeys.      Tribal Canoe Journeys is an annual event organized by the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Every year, people from various First Nations travel across the Pacific Northwest Coast with decorated traditional canoes. We are planning to represent the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan in this event. In order to participate in the Tribal Canoe Journeys for 2023 we need to move the tatala to Seattle by July 2023. We also look forward to making stops along th...

In recent years more and more researchers, such as anthropologists, archaeologists, botanists, botanists, biologists, and linguists maintain that Taiwan is the origin of the Austronesians. The 2021 Taiwan CIP, Council of Indigenous People, published The Origins of Austronesians. This book includes many pieces of evidence which help us to know how such different fields came to the same answer. The easiest way to explain this is that such a small island had historical traces of more than 22 different tribes. However, only 16 have been officially certified. Taiwan is still working towards the revitalization of some indigenous communities which haven’t been recognized, because indigenous cultures are so important and are just gaining attention from the United Nations. Indigenous cultures not only reveal the connections between humans and land but also show the diversity of the world. Culture can affect people’s concepts. Levi-Strauss an anthropologist instructs that scientific explanation ...