Ten Aboriginal students were honored yesterday for their award-winning stories, including pieces on a major village celebration, rediscovery of Aboriginal identity and family challenges.
The 10 winners were selected from 128 entries in a writing contest sponsored by the Council of Indigenous Peoples and Young Aborigines — a magazine aimed at promoting Aboriginal cultural and identity awareness among young indigenous people.
Lin Yu-yi (林侑儀), an Amis seventh grader at Taitung’s Sinsheng Junior High School, described a harvest festival — the most celebrated event — in her home village in Donghe (東河), Taitung.
“The Amis harvest festival, which lasts days, is a way for the Amis to express their gratitude to Heaven for the harvest and the peace granted to us during the past year,” Lin wrote in her essay.
She described scenes at the harvest celebrations at communal areas and in private homes, as well as the joy of parents seeing their sons and daughters completing the coming-of-age tests that also take place during the festival.
“I love putting on traditional outfits during celebrations. I love the joyful ring of small bells sewn into our traditional costumes as we dance and the joyful sound of singing by the villagers,” she wrote.
“I’m really in love with my own culture and I’m proud to be an Amis,” Lin said yesterday when asked why she wrote about the harvest festival.
Another award-winner, Huo Hsu-hua (霍續華), told of her journey to rediscover her Aboriginal identity.
“I was a ‘Shandonger’ before 15 and became an Aborigine all of a sudden when I turned 15,” Huo wrote at the beginning of her essay.
Huo was born to a father who came from China’s Shandong Province and a Saisiat mother.
Huo lived in Taipei until she was 15 and was brought up as a “Shandonger.” However, she moved to Pingtung because of family reasons this year and is now attending a junior high school in Majia Township (瑪家), among Paiwan Aborigines.
“I often heard bad things about Aborigines in Taipei — they were described as a lazy people who only like singing, dancing, drinking and chewing betel nuts,” Huo wrote.
“But after living here for four months, I realized that Aborigines are a very lovely people — their hearts are pure, innocent and compassionate,” Huo said.v
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS