Passing the Baton: Finding the Feel of Your Own Body

How close to reality is your impression of indigenous people? Given the fact that their traditional ways of life are far removed from those of most people, and that most communities are beyond their daily reach, a popular stereotypical image of being “indigenous” has been forged through the propagation of school textbooks and media coverage. But this time, instead of waging a war of words over the issue, we want the non-indigenous to get to know us for themselves by inviting them over for a firsthand experience of the indigenous life.

I am hewen a ta:in tawtawazay, SaySiyat from Miaoli. It took me two years (2018-2020) to recover my indigenous name. My mother is Hakka, and my father is from Kaehkaeh’oe’an Community in Nangzhuang, Miaoli. I relocated to Taipei to continue my education in high school, and am currently based in Taipei for work. I call myself a SaySiyat child recognized by the ancestral spirits halfway through the journey. Growing up unfamiliar with my own culture and without awareness of my identity, I only came to realize the fundamental questions, as asked by my friends, after leaving my ...

“Pangcah Pottery”, namely potteries made by the Pangcah, can be categorized as vessels for “daily” use and “ritual” use. The former includes water jugs, rice pots, ceramic yans, and wine bottles, each with its specific function; the latter refers to the cup used to pay tribute to the spirits and ancestors in rituals. Makers of Pangcah pottery are mainly women. They only make potteries once a year for the duration of one week, sometime between the time the seedlings for the second crop season have been planted and before the rice is to be harvested...

Collecting the Soil Accompanied by the owner of the brick kiln, the group sets off to the mine in Sado Community to collect the soil. The site is an indented pit, “the pit is indented due to the decades of soil collected by the brick kiln to make bricks, which also means that the soil we now collect is closer to the surface of the earth, making it stickier and purer,” says Afo’....

What is it that made you decide you want to come home and learn about your culture? It was in 2014, my junior year in university. I returned to my indigenous community to take part in the paSta’ay, and that was a real wake-up call. The song and dance began at 6 o’clock that day, and I was sitting in the tourist area next to the ritual site. I carried with me the traditional indigenous clothes my grandmother gave me, but I couldn’t bring myself to put them on...

After the shaping practice yesterday, Afo’ lets hewen work on a bigger sized Atomo today, which is a commonly seen everyday life pottery. All that is required as tools are a wheel, a tray, and a wire brush...

What observations have you made making different potteries in the last two days? The main difference is I learned to use my hand to make a concave body today. Yesterday, I made the ritual cup by first rolling out a sheet of clay and a base, and gradually shaping the cup with the combination. But today, I started with a clay ball and slowly dug the indentation so that the pottery is firmer in shape....

On the third day, we can finally open that kiln! After cooling for almost 40 hours, the electric kiln is still rather hot, and you need gloves to not get burnt. The first things we see upon opening the kiln were the boxes of pink-orange ceramic beads. Removing the layers, we are pleasantly surprised. Despite being fired in the same kiln, each piece comes out a little different in coloring. Foday shares that for larger pieces, even different parts on the same piece would have different coloring, which cannot be controlled. Such is the surprise and joy of kiln firing...

How does it feel to open the kiln and see your own work? The color is nothing like the soil! The soil we collected was dark grey, but after firing, it turned pink-orange, feels like switching from the cold color palette to the warm. When I held the burning hot pottery in my hand, I thought to myself, this took me two whole days. In this day and age when mass-produced pottery is a dime in the dozen, it cannot be easy for the pottery-making skills to be passed on in today’s world...

How close to reality is your impression of indigenous people? Given the fact that their traditional ways of life are far removed from those of most people, and that most communities are beyond their daily reach, a popular stereotypical image of being “indigenous” has been forged through the propagation of school textbooks and media coverage. But this time, instead of waging a war of words over the issue, we want the non-indigenous to get to know us for themselves by inviting them over for a firsthand experience of the indigenous life. In this issue, we invite Kuo Pei-Hsuan...

I’ve just returned from a trip to Taitung one month before receiving the invitation to this project. During that trip, what impressed me most, besides the relaxing beauty of nature and landscapes, were Taitung’s various delicacies and buildings featuring indigenous elements, as well as numerous handicrafts and ornaments that decorated the fronts of houses. But when asked about the characteristics of Taiwan’s indigenous culture, I cannot think of an answer at the moment...

Having grown up in the Puyuma Community of the Pinuyumayan and received a series of training for age organizations, Akac Orat returned to his mother’s hometown, the Madawdaw Community of the Amis, at the age of 30. He was saddened to see the community had been Christianized, leaving no marks of its traditional culture. This inspired him to step onto the path of learning about the Amis culture from his mother’s side. He turned this aspiration into action by spending nearly seven years learning rattan weaving from local elders. Apart from making baskets, rattan is a...