I have just spent ten days accompanying John Seed on a trip around Taiwan. John is an environmentalist from Australia well known for his efforts protecting rainforests around the world and also as a philosopher of Deep Ecology. I met John at the Taoyuan Airport on the morning of 28 March. We then took the high speed train to Kaohsiung where we met Dr Lin Yih-ren who arranged John’s visit to Taiwan. Continue reading
Over the weekend I visited the Bunun community of Kalibuan (Wangxiang, 望鄉部落) with a group of students from Providence University and National Chengchi University. The first stop on the way was a small museum in Xinyi Township of Nantou County. The museum contains a range of materials related to Bunun culture.
The picture above shows a reconstruction of a traditional slate house in the museum. There are also some items related to hunting and farming and a reproduction of a Bunun calendar. The Bunun were the only group of Austronesian people in Taiwan to develop a writing system. The calendar contains information about phases of the moon, hunting, farming activities and significant events like births or marriages. The knowledge about making the calendars was only held by a few families.
On the first day in the village of Wangxiang we learnt about the farming activities. The main crops grown in the village are village are plums and grapes. Grapes are mainly grown by people from outside the community. The land is classified as baoliudi (保留地) which can only be sold to indigenous people. However, illegal deals are used by outsiders to gain control of the land.
Neqo Soqluman, pictured on the left above, is one of my colleagues at Providence University. On the right is Dina Ibu, an elder in the community. They are part of a group that established the Tongku Saveq School to teach people about the traditional knowledge and culture of the Bunun. They have set aside some land in the village for traditional farming and seed saving. They enthusiastically introduced some of the many seeds they have planted on the land. Most of the seeds were varieties of beans.
On Sunday morning I woke up to see this view of Taiwan’s highest peak. Most people in Taiwan call it Jade Mountain (玉山), but the Bunun people call it Tongku Saveq. The Bunun people were moved to this area by the Japanese in 1938. One of the conditions for moving to the new village was that they would be able to see the peak of Tongku Saveq. The Chinese name of the village, Wangxiang (望鄉), means “the place with a view.”
The second day, Tiang, a hunter from the community led us along the hunting trail. A large group wandering along in the day time is unlikely to meet many animals. Tiang showed us some plants in the forest and also talked about some of the plant-animal interactions. His knowledge of the forest was quite extraordinary. He also told many stories about his experiences while hunting.
Another special thing about visiting Kalibuan was the singing. The Bunun are famous for their eight part harmony singing. While we didn’t get to hear this we heard a number of songs that sounded truly wonderful. It was a great weekend getting to know more about Bunun culture.
Over the weekend I joined a trip organised by the Research Centre for Austronesian Peoples at Providence University to Ren’ai Township in Nantou County (南投縣仁愛鄉). We visited several villages in the area to learn more about Seediq (賽德克族) culture. The main purpose of the trip was as an orientation for professors from several universities who are working on a project to improve science and maths education for indigenous children. They plan to include various elements of local culture and knowledge into the curriculum to make it more relevant and improve learning outcomes.
The first place was visited was Sadu (靜觀), which was at the end of the road at an altitude of 1,500 metres. In the church Pastor Kumu Tapas gave us a talk about various aspects of the local culture and history. Actually the people in this village identify as Toda, a sub-group of the Seediq. The other two sub-groups of the Seediq are the Tkdaya and Truku. The Seediq groups were classified as Atayal until the Truku gained official recognition 2004. Then the Seediq (Tkdaya) were officially recognised in 2008. However, the Toda haven’t gained recognition as a separate group.
On the way down from Sadu we stopped at a small village. This village contained a number of wooden buildings which date back to the Japanese era. Some of the scenes of the forthcoming movie Seediq Bale were shot here. This is the area where many of the historical events surrounding the Wushe Incident that the movie is based on took place. Following the Wushe Incident in 1930 the people from these villages were forced to move down by the Japanese.
Although we didn’t go Lushan (廬山) we stopped on the road to view it from above. Lushan was in the news when Typhoon Sinlaku hit in 2008. A hotel that toppled in the river and was captured on video attracted a lot of media attention. It might be a little difficult to make out in the photo above (click through to view the large size) but some of the buildings in the centre were partially buried and what you can see is actually just the second or third floor of the original building, now at ground level. This event cannot be described as a “natural disaster” though. The buildings are actually occupying the channel of the river. The “disaster” was man-made and an inevitable consequence of inappropriate development.
Later in the afternoon we reached Snuwil (春陽). On the road we met Labai, an elderly woman. She took us up to some fields where she cut some ramie (苧麻) which is the plant used to get the fibre for weaving. Then we got down to the church where she demonstrated much of the process involved in preparing the fibres and then weaving them. The first step is stripping the fibres from the raw plant. The next step was spinning the fibres. The steps of washing and dying weren’t shown, but once the fibres had been prepared Labai then showed how the threads are set up for the loom. This is shown in the picture above. After this the threads are transferred to the loom so the weaving work can begin.
Seeing the amount of work and knowledge that went into creating the final product gives one a new level of appreciation for this craft. After showing us the weaving Labai played the bamboo mouth harp for us. This is shown in the picture at the top of the post.
On Sunday morning Seling led us on a walk to the top of a nearby hill. Along the way he stopped to point out various plants in the forest and to talk about various aspects of hunting. He also showed us how he sets up several kinds of traps.
The photo above shows one of the traps in closer detail. On a hunting trip he would set dozens of traps like this. It is a good reason to be cautious about wandering off established trails in mountain areas! Seling also explained how hunters will tie the grass or make marks on the trees as a signal to others that they are in the area. There are also rules about the ownership of hunting grounds which reduce the risk of hunters “catching” each other.
Later on Sunday morning we joined the church service in Snuwil. The community is quite large with over 1,000 people so there was a sizable congregation. There were also a lot of young people who played an active role in the service. The service was conducted in both Seediq and Mandarin. It was great to experience this as it is a very important part of the community life.
中文版：賽德克巴萊的傳統領域
Over the weekend I visited some of the areas affected by Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung County with a group of law students from Providence University. It is now more than eight months since the typhoon hit Taiwan. While there has been so much reported about the event in the media visiting these places provides a better understanding of the magnitude of the disaster.
The first part of the trip visited Liugui (六龜) and Baolai (寶來). In Liugui a Bunun elder related the history of his community. Following the typhoon they have been frustrated in their efforts to find a new place to relocate their village. Even though they have found a suitable place the government has repeatedly refused them permission to move there.
Dr Lin Yih-ren raised the important point that “moving the village” (遷村) is actually a normal part of the culture of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Historically they also migrated to new locations within Taiwan. However, forced relocation by the government is something different and doesn’t respect the autonomy or integrity of indigenous communities.
A satellite photo in Liugui showed the extent of landslides. These occurred in both areas were people lived and also in other places were there were no people living and no agricultural or other activities. This indicates the problem is not just related to land use, but is closely linked to the geology of the area. The landscape is very fragile in nature.
Travelling between Liugui and Baolai was a chance to see some of the landslides. The roads are still under reconstruction and in some places there are temporary roads through the landslides. In some places the landslides are more than ten metres deep. The forces of nature that were unleashed were truly formidable.
On the second day of the trip we visited Tzu Chi’s Da Ai Village in Shanlin (杉林慈濟大愛村). The development of the village is still ongoing, but there are presently about 800 people living in the village. One good thing about the village is the use of surface drainage that doesn’t rely on large amounts of concrete. It is more natural and is a good example of ecological design. However, I didn’t see this reflected in the construction of the buildings or the layout of the site. The long grey lines of concrete boxes did not include any elements of passive solar design and there were no solar hot water systems installed on the roofs. The square layout and box-like designs don’t reflect the natural environment or necessarily promote the development of community. It seems more authoritarian in nature.
In two days there was only enough time to gain a preliminary understanding of the situation. It was a chance to hear some different voices at the grassroots level speaking about how they had been affected by the disaster. But ultimately in the short time there were a lot more questions than answers.
In the time immediately after the disaster people need basic assistance like food, shelter and medicine. But in the long-term they need to be self-reliant. This means government should not just think about how to provide basic assistance, but put long term plans in place that consider sustainability and security for local people. Dr Lin Yih-ren said that we should think about “people in the disaster area” (災區裡面的人民) instead of “disaster victims” (災民).
Local people need to be able to make decisions about the future, but they cannot do this while there is continuing uncertainty or if the government is unwilling to listen to their voices. It is important to make a proper assessment of local people’s needs and ensure their voices are heard and they play an active role in decision making. Local people have a lot of knowledge about the area and they are also the ones who have to live with the consequences of the decisions that are made.
Disaster also brings benefits such as construction projects, gravel and driftwood. But who actually benefits from this? This is a fundamental issue of social justice. What if infrastructure is built in a way that satisfies demands of contractors and corporations but is not appropriate or of poor quality? Who takes responsibility for this? If infrastructure needs to be rebuilt every time there is a big typhoon then corporations and contractors can profit from this, but the local people and the taxpayers are the ones who bear the burden.
While the central government is controlled by the KMT, the local government in Kaohsiung County is controlled by the DPP. The problems are not just related to political parties, but are linked to the nature of the political economy in Taiwan.
*Thanks to Dr Lin Yih-ren and Lin Shu-ya for inviting me to join this trip.
Post-script: After returning from the trip to Kaohsiung County I learnt of the landslide across the freeway in Keelung. It again highlights the fragile nature of Taiwan’s geology. While the immediate response to the disaster is important, in the long-term it is also necessary to seek answers about why this event occurred.
David on Formosa 