Atayal cultural conservationist and artist Hitay Payan, who dedicated his life to the preservation and promotion of Atayal cultural heritage, died on Friday last week at the age of 74, the Ministry of Culture said on Tuesday.
Born in Hsinchu in 1949, Hitay Payan developed an interest in the history and culture of the Atayal people after discovering several versions of the Atayal language, and devoted himself to preserving the culture and language of his people.
Traditionally, the Atayal had no written language and used lmuhuw to pass on their language and culture from generation to generation through songs and oral communication.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture via CNA
Lmuhuw in 2011 was listed as an intangible cultural asset by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the then-Council for Cultural Affairs.
Hitay Payan was a member of the Taiwan Atayal People Sustainable Association, which was certified as a lmuhuw conservation group by the Hsinchu County Government in 2012. He devoted his life to preserving and promoting the culture of the Atayal, which in addition to lmuhuw included the origins and history of the Atayal people.
He wrote books in Chinese, gave talks and also participated in making documentaries.
Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) in a statement expressed his condolences and said the ministry would issue an official certificate in recognition of Hitay Payan’s efforts at conserving local culture.
In related news, the Council of Indigenous Peoples on Tuesday held a one-day “Forum on the Revitalization and Exchange of Austronesian Languages” at Taipei’s National Central Library, where representatives from the Canada Language Museum and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori (Maori Language Commission) engaged with Taiwanese officials.
The forum was organized to bring together nations with indigenous languages so they can learn from one another, the council said.
Domestically, the council said that it hoped the forum would help it improve the Indigenous Languages Development Act (原住民族語言發展法).
By observing and learning how other nations preserve the languages of their indigenous populations, Taiwan could further advance the revitalization and restoration of the nation’s own indigenous languages, the council said.
The act was promulgated in 2017 and reflects the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s indigenous languages promotion and preservation efforts in 2016 and 2019, as well as the organization’s Indigenous Languages Decade program from this year to 2032.
As people at the forum spoke in their native tongues, the council arranged for live translations into English, Mandarin, Amis, Paiwan, Atayal, Bunun and Truku.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS