Does it remind you of being in your old community when you hiked the giant trees trail today?
It sure did. When I was going up the slope, my body kind of remembered it. We used to have to go up and down the slopes in our community, and it felt very similar. Especially the beginning part of the trail today, it's very similar to that in my community, just with a less densely grown bamboo forest. We didn't have toys to play with growing up, so we would walk about and snap twigs and grass, pick up pebbles and throw them about, just messing around. This reminds me of something. The houses in our community are built one story after another along the slopes, so when you are walking on the upper story, you are led to the roof of the house in the lower story. Once, we saw a house that seemed less attended to. We thought it was vacant and could be our secret hideaway, so we called on everyone to come and play in it, jumping around on the roof. Later when we went home, we were scolded. People in that house came and asked who the kids were jumping around on someone else's roof.
You noticed some insignificant landscape along the trail, did that observation come from your experiences in your community?
That's not from my childhood, but from attending the guided tours in other communities growing up. For example, when I saw a cleared patch today, I knew that when you see a cleared patch in the mountains, it's very likely because people are using the land, and that was something I've heard before from the elders.
Did anything interesting occur along the trail today?
I think it's walking in the mountains and not seeing people in front of or behind you, you become very conscious that the sounds you make are mixed with those coming from the mountains, but you have your own sound. When I was walking alone, I heard loud footsteps, but when I looked back, I didn't see anyone. I once thought the sounds might be coming from me, yet the footsteps sounded really loud and boy-like, I didn't think it could be me. In order to trace the source of the sound, I stopped dead in my tracks for 30 seconds, but still saw no one at all. I calmed down and observed my own pace, then I realized that the sounds did come from me, and it was then that I felt like I was walking and breathing with the environment and that I became one with the environment.
Anything you would like to share with us from your talk with Moto?
There was a sunshower after we came out of the trail, and Moto immediately got on his bike to go home and bring the washings in. I was rather shocked and thought, "oh, so it's his job to bring the washings in." Household labor didn't match the title of the Board Director. When I was at the traditional leader's house to chat with him last night, I also saw him bathe his children. This ties in with the discussions on the gender concepts of indigenous people in recent years, it is very difficult to generalize the patrilineality or matrilineality of any group of people with today's gendered division of labor. For example, the Rukai is a class-based society, and marrying the eldest daughter of a noble family requires the male to "marry into" the family. But the term "marry into" is a very Mandarin concept and not at all what it really entails and does not affect the division of household labor between men and women.
I talked about interracial marriage with Moto today, and since the Atayal male cannot marry into the female's family, what should they do if an Atayal male and the eldest daughter of a Rukai noble family were to get married? Guess the two families will have to settle it over a row. I have yet to encounter an actual example, so I guess my fate has been carefully avoiding this route for me.
Moto mentioned building an environment for children to learn their language, can you share with us your journey of learning your mother language?
I grew up in the city, so I can only say simple things like "do you want to eat", "I'm hungry", "take a shower", or "go to bed", much like the basic English phrases we learn in 7th grade, so I cannot converse with my grandma in our language. I agree with Moto, you need to learn the indigenous language from a young age, it is very difficult learning another language once you're all grown up. For example, sometimes when my mother uses some words in our language, I will note them down on my phone, but every time I read them again, they are like new words, and I have to memorize them all over again. Always working on the first few words meant I'll never be able to remember all of them.
I think what Moto said should be shared with my mom because my mom would speak lengthily in our language and expect you to respond, but I really couldn't understand her in such long sentences, so I had to start breaking down the sentences and confirm with her word by word. So, if we can build up the kids' vocabulary from a young age, they will be able to learn their language much faster.
What touched you the most today?
I really enjoy walking, so it felt good walking amongst the sacred trees. We had tiny paths in our community, so I used to get bored hiking. I guess people here probably don't find the trail special either, just as I didn't use to find it special living in the stone slab house growing up, but when tourists began taking photographs, I realized that a lot of the traditional customs we have naturally grown so used to are in fact valuable and of cultural significance.
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