Share with us the process of you learning that you are indigenous, and how you felt during that period?
When I was preparing for my senior high school entrance exam, my mother asked if I wanted to take the indigenous language proficiency test. My first reaction was, “what? I can do that? Am I indigenous? How have I never heard you talk about this growing up?” Then I recalled the time I spent with my grandmother on my mother’s side, how she would speak to me in our language, but no one ever told me that it was the Truku language.
I later passed the exam, but even though I knew I was indigenous, life didn’t change much for me. The indigenous status didn’t make a difference to me. When I started university and had to introduce myself to people, I didn’t have much else to say after telling people that I was Truku. I began to feel bad about it and felt that I didn’t deserve this status, like it was just a show I put on. Back then, I often questioned myself, “so am I really indigenous? But my family is indigenous.” It was rather conflicting for me for a while. Then a senior female classmate invited me to join the indigenous school club Ngasal Maku. I got to spend time with other indigenous persons, and that was when I realized that there are many urban indigenous persons like myself, all searching for a way to return home, and that slowly changed how I felt. I may still not know enough now, but nothing will stop me from sharing the fact that I am indigenous. We all grew up with different backgrounds, and I shouldn’t have to feel ashamed for being urban indigenous.
Growing up in the city, how did you learn about the history of your indigenous community?
Even though my grandmother on my mother’s side spoke the Truku language, she spent time away from her father and went to a Japanese elementary school for a while, and only returned to her indigenous community during the summer to take care of the millet field. So there wasn’t much that she could share with me. Some of what I know about the history of my people were through research and much digesting, some were shared by my Truku senior male classmate who grew up in an indigenous community, and others I learned while taking indigenous language courses at university. In recent years, I got to know some people from my indigenous community and began taking part in some of the events hosted by the younger generation in the community. All of which slowly built up my knowledge of the Truku.
Have you visited the traditional territory of the Truku people before?
Not the traditional territory of the Chongde Community, but I have visited that of the Gukut Community. I was taking part in the event hosted by the Taiwan Indigenous Association of Truku Youth, and the tour guide introduced the mountain behind the indigenous community, the family houses, the plants, and the trails as we hiked. When taking part in activities like this, I project myself accordingly, “so this is how the Truku see their lands up in the mountain, this is the perspective from the mountain.” Just like reading a novel, I imagine myself as the leading character within. To me, these are things I’ve never experienced, so it doesn’t matter which indigenous community the experience came from, I self-project, and I share with others afterward, “this is what we Truku do up in the mountain, this is what I experienced in the Gukut Community.”
Have you ever pitched your own tent and camped out in the wild? How is this different from your experiences in the past?
I have camped in camping areas before, and before we set out on this trip, I thought we would be staying in a very simple workshed in the mountain built with sheet iron, wooden board, and canvas, and I imagined it to be very challenging. But I found it to be much more pleasant after I arrived here, it’s like an outpost for me, for I met a Truku friend lately and we’ve been talking about going hunting in the mountains in the future, experiencing life in the mountains, so this is like a practice round for me.
What are you expecting for tomorrow?
I don’t quite understand what “making a broom” meant in our itinerary, is the Bunun broom different from other people’s? I also look forward to learning about traditional crops, “diet” is an integral part of life and culture. I know that the Truku used to have a lot of traditional crops, but they have all disappeared, and exist only in the memories of the elder ones. So I look forward to learning about the traditional crops of the Bunun, and eager to learn how they have brought them back.
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