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Atayal weaver lays foundation for aboriginal education

• Publication Date：05/21/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  June Tsai

Aboriginal weaver and cultural activist Yuma Taru is holding an Atayal textile show in Taipei City to help raise funds for an all-Atayal preschool project.

Running until May 26 at Lovely Taiwan Shop, a fair trade enterprise, the exhibition showcases works by members of a studio established by Yuma Taru.

A pioneer among Taiwan’s indigenous artists in taking action to preserve the cultural legacy of aboriginal identity, Yuma Taru began a lifelong enterprise to rediscover, preserve and pass on traditional Atayal weaving techniques and designs in 1992.

Over the past 20 years, she has led a team seeking out lost weaving knowledge by visiting 200 communities, cataloging more than 300 basic weaving patterns and 10,000 textile designs. Cloth products based on the team’s findings are on show in the exhibit to attract donors.

Her most recent project is to build a preschool in Xiangbi Village in Miaoli County’s Tai-an Township, where her studio-cum-research complex is located, representing a further stage in her cultural work for the tribe.

The three-year experimental education project, already in progress for three weeks, combines traditional beliefs and rituals with knowledge about life and nature, which are taught to children in Atayal, according to Yuma Taru.

She expects to attract 1,000 supporters through the exhibition, with each donating NT$5,000 (US$169) to help the project move forward, she said.

“Education is responsible for the transmission of culture, and that should begin from within the community,” she said, adding that she hopes the project can eventually be extended to the secondary and even tertiary level. (THN)