After disaster traditional art is transformed into cash

 The Tsou Tribe has an estimated 300 people in the Alishan Mountains: in the course of the terrible Typhoon Morakot, Lijia Village had many homes washed away and the people went 5 months without electricity. However, even after those bitter times and all the hardship the people suffered, the village was not toppled! On the contrary, these hard times have rekindled the spirit of the tribe and reconnected the people to the land. The aboriginal spirit has been raised by the disaster the people have gone through and 21 months after that fateful day are here to tell the world, ‘Lijia Village is still here”- and things are going to be even better than before. Up until now, the road network has still not been fully fixed, and as a consequence the regular flow of tourists from the tourism industry they had built up has halted. After common consensus the people decided to use this long period of time to undergo some skills training. This came about after government officials visited the village in the wake of the disaster and were moved at the people’s resilience and proactive nature to pick up the pieces.

Lijia was chosen as the main village in a group of three out of many to undergo reconstruction including training in a number of special skills – among them bamboo and rattan weaving classes. The villagers have been deeply moved and grateful for the opportunity to learn these new skills, as through these skills they have been able to bring back many traditional arts and crafts that had been considered lost. The main anxiety villages are left with is whether or not the tribe will have any financial benefit after undergoing training in these arts and crafts – can their art be converted into money? The teacher’s recognition and support for their new acquired skills has certainly given the people a great deal of confidence in themselves. Councilor, Wang Zhi-min expressed that the next agenda is to proactively fight for the Tsou Tribe’s development and improve the economic situation for all eight of the villages. 

After disaster traditional art is transformed into cash (by CJ Niahosa)

URL: http://www.peopo.org/news/74186

(以下是中文對照)

災後文化技藝復振變現金(鄒公)

照片

阿里山內山號稱300人的鄒族部落：里佳部落，莫拉克風災中有12戶房子被土石流沖走，道路三個月後勉強通行，五個月後才有電。里佳部落並沒有因此被打 倒，反而把原住民與大自然共生，強韌的生命力展現的淋漓盡致，災後二十個月後大聲告訴外界：里佳部落還在！而且會比以前更好。到現在道路系統還未完全恢 復，原來已經發展相當程度的部落觀光旅遊產業，因此停擺了一段時日，道路不通順遊客不能來，在部落人的共識下一起渡過這漫長復建的日子，就因為政府看到了 部落人的韌性，重災之下部落人的積極求生的意念，里佳部落獲選為三個優先重點復建部落之一，也辦理多項技能訓練，竹藤編是其中一項，族人感到珍惜欣慰，因 為藉由這個訓練，又把將失傳的傳統技藝找回來。不過族人所關切的是；培養學習了很好的技藝，對部落產業經濟發展到底有沒有用啊？！如何變現金?民意代表的 保證，老師的肯定與支持，給了部落人很大的信心。產業輔導汪志敏議員特別表示；接下來希望並積極爭取阿里山鄒族產業發展輔導八個部落，整體提升阿里山原住 民產業經濟。

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