| Sports |
by RALPH
JENNINGS
Taiwanese tribe clings to seafaring traditions
ORCHID ISLAND, Taiwan: On this all
but forgotten Pacific isle ruled by Taiwan, villagers have carved
a traditional wooden fishing boat to teach their culture to an
ethnic Chinese majority largely unaware of their existence.
Twelve men will row the boat, a super-sized model of what the
island’s Tao tribe has used for centuries to catch flying fish,
more than 65km eastward to Taiwan’s main population centres where
they will show off their way of life to locals.
“We want people to know what ocean culture is, that it’s not just
a fantasy,” Shyaman Vengayan, organiser of the event, said.
Orchid aborigines live now much as they have since Taiwan assumed
control of the island 61 years ago. But like many minority tribes
across the globe, their way of life is being threatened by an
influx of outside influences and departure of youth for the big
cities of nearby Taiwan.
Families on this island, with its Hawaiian-like landscapes, feel
ethnically closest to Austronesian minorities in the northern
Philippines, with whom they traded on the high seas 200 years ago
before ocean borders were drawn up. The rowboat launch is just one
indication that the Tao, also known as the Yami, hope to make the
past their future despite decades of influence from a more
developed Taiwan.
“There are a lot of people who still have the hope to keep our
culture intact,” Orchid vendor Sham Jagovat, 35, said.
Numerous other traditions also continue. Flying fish can only be
caught in the Tao-designated season, roughly from late March to
early June, out of respect for their value to humans. Women eat
the best of the catch because they give birth, and only men can
hang gutted fish for salting, drying and preservation.
Some of the 3,100 Tao on the island also live in traditional
underground homes that keep out typhoons and stilt-supported
pavilions that offer shade. They might consult shaman about
medical issues, even though most are Christians. The group
maintains its traditions through an active effort, aided by
isolation of their 45 sq km island, even as many youths go to
Taiwan’s big island for work or study.
Many of the Tao have drifted toward outside lifestyles since the
1960s, when former leader Chiang Kai-shek pushed Taiwan’s 13
aboriginal groups to assimilate.
Orchid aborigines now eat flying fish and a traditional taro-yam
mash with wasabi sauce and alcoholic energy drinks. They chew
betelnut, a Taiwan staple. Some also use motorboats to fish or
build Taiwan-style cement houses above ground. They can freely
move to Taiwan cities of more than one million people to gain
university degrees and higher-paying jobs. Most Orchid Island
youths speak Mandarin, with only the elders using the tribal
language, which has no writing system.
Many youths who stay on the island find work building boats, but
those who leave often don’t learn the craft. Some work in a
tourism industry founded on diving because of Orchid Island’s
coral-bounded waters. But that business is less developed due to
over-fishing and lack of transit links.
Despite limited opportunities, tribal elders hope that youths
living outside will return, using their education to record
traditions, Shya Pan Kotan, 82, said. “They’ll appreciate how
we’ve lived, and they can write it down, so there won’t be an
especially big loss.”
Indigenous activists are also working to get Taiwan’s 13
recognised tribes, totalling about 400,000 people, to work
together so they can lobby for their rights as a single tribe.
Activists say visits to the Philippines to study that nation’s
inter-tribal activism as their own tribes drift apart could help
Taiwanese aborigines – some of whom are actually ethnically
related to Philippine tribes – to better challenge developments
threatening their way of life. In a shift from its earlier policy
promoting assimilation, Taiwan’s government will also do its part
to try and keep the Tao traditions going. – Reuters
The government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples will raise its
budget for helping the 13 recognised aboriginal groups record and
spread their cultures, a council official said.
“The new political regime has come in to rule us, but the old
thinking can’t change,” said Fei Yu, 37, an artist from Orchid
Island. “We may go out to study and work, but we will eventually
go back. We know we have our island we can return to.”
 
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