PeoPo Your Shoot searches for the lost Kaxabu

PeoPo Your Shoot searches for the lost Kaxabu

Each and every place in Taiwan has its own particular issues worthy of attenton. In this year’s third Your Shoot event, more than sixty citizen journalists traveled to Puli in Noutou County, where they set about capturing local stories through the lens, including the fight for name rectification, and the active renaissance of the Kaxabu people.

Located at the geographic center of Taiwan in the Puli Basins, it is a multi-ethnic immigrant society. In the 18th century, the area witnessed a gradual influx of plains aborigines from central Taiwan, one of which was the Kaxabu people. Known in anthropological circles as the ‘Four Villages of Mei River’, the Kaxabu established four communities in the northeast of the area at the foot of Nioumianshan (牛眠山), including Nioumian (牛眠), Shoucheng (守城), Danan (大湳) and Wugonglun (蜈蚣崙).

The Jiji earthquake – known locally as the 921 earthquake – wrought huge damage on central Taiwan. Immediately after the event, the Shoucheng community launched a self-help initiative through the traditional ‘work sharing’ solidarity mechanism, which in only one week succeeded in substantially clearing the community’s public spaces. Later, through technical assistance from NGOs, corporate donations, local fundraising, and the voluntary participation of public workers and residents in the reconstruction project, they successfully managed to build the ‘Four Villages of Mei River Working Station’ and ‘Shoucheng Tribal Gathering House’. Shoucheng Community College is an important rural base for the study and research of agriculture and the renaissance of Kaxabu cultural. The community is currently actively engaged in the fight to be officially recognized as an indigenous tribe of Taiwan.

URL：https://www.peopo.org/news/312915

(以下為中文對照)

尋找失落的噶哈巫-PeoPo踹拍

照片

台灣的每個地方都有值得關注的人事物和議題，今年PeoPo的第三場踹拍活動，帶領60多位公民記者到南投埔裡，用鏡頭記錄報導當地希望爭取正名、並且積極進行文化復興的「噶哈巫族」的故事。

位處臺灣地理中心地的埔里盆地，是個多元族群的移墾社會，十八世紀後，陸續有許多中部地區的平埔族遷入，其中一支稱為噶哈巫族（Kahabu）則落腳在盆地東北邊的牛眠山腳下，並建立了牛眠、牛尾、大湳、蜈蚣崙和守城等社區，人類學界將其稱之為「眉溪四庄」。

1999年九二一大地震重創臺灣中部地區，位於鄉郊的守城社區在災後第一時間便已展開自救行動，同時更發揮傳統「公工」互助機制，在災後約一週內，社區公共空間便已大致清理完畢，後來在NGO組織技術協助、企業捐款、居民募款以及公工及志工齊力參與營造下，陸續成立了眉溪四庄重建工作站、守城新公廳。而守城社區大學更是附近各社區居民研習農村產業和噶哈巫族文化傳承的復振基地，目前社區也正積極投入向中央爭取族群正名運動中。