What do we do when it’s all over?

Report on a workshop on the key issues of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples’ digital archives.As plans enter their final stages, what is to be done with our equipment, human resources and our records has recently become a hot topic for conversation.

Qian Shanhua, a professor at the National Taiwan Normal University’s Taiwan’s College of Music shared his experiences with the program from 2007, which included the Amis and Paiwan tribe  folk-song Digital Archives project/Tao/Rukai  folk-song Digital Archives Project-the ‘The Beauty of the Native Voice’ project, as the Austronesian Music Museum-Palau Music Digital Archives Project. Professor Qian discussed the fruits of his labours, but lamented the fact that, with the project coming to its conclusion, music categorization work still remains to be done amongst the indigenous minorities of Taiwan. For the sake of retaining and perpetuating these sounds, Professor Qian stressed that with the construction of the SOP, both the proper administration of power and the effectiveness of results achieved should be serious thinking points for the planning ahead, together with the direction taken in advertising the project at local stations.

Huang Zhihong, Associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the National Taipei University of Technology, also a member of the Research Committee on Construction and City Planning, opened with a presentation on the role of buildings as vessels in our day to day lives and in the transmission of culture. Huang explained the value and meaning for society of certain projects, such as the Digital Archives Project to Reconstruct Japanese Occupation Era Atayal and Tsou Settlements Based on Dr. Suketarou Jijiiwa's Maps and Diagrams of Indigenous Architecture  and  the Japanese Colonial Period Chijiiwa Suketarou Aborigine Building Survey Drawing Digital Archives Project . Professor Huang provided pictures, manuscripts and draft maps giving a picture of the lives led by Taiwan’s indigenous people, which dated from the original research carried out by Chijiiwa Suketarou on the buildings of the region. Working from an investigation of the relevant materials, Professor Huang showed how Chijiiwa’s work had also begun to investigate the ‘rope-games’ of the Atayal people, and strove to promote to the outside world this indigenous culture of hunting, agriculture and weaving. This combination of fieldwork gathering of material, combined with a discussion of these popular ‘rope-games’, attracted the interest and attention of a large number of young people present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the National Taipei University of Science and Technology offered a 3-D film and game, developed with funding from the National Science Council’s Digital Archives Program, to the assembled audience, who experienced through the challenges presented by the film something of the life in traditional households of the Atayal people.

Huang Juzheng, Assistant Professor at the Technology Law Research Institute at the National Tsinghua University, and workshop host, spoke on his experiences of and impressions on the implementation of two projects – the “Planning and Response Team for the"Act on Protection of Indigenous Peoples traditional Intellectual Creations” and the “" Protection of Indigenous Peoples Traditional Intellectual Creations Trial Project, the latter administered by the Indigenous Peoples’ Commission, Executive Yuan These two projects, stated Professor Huang have achieved a sound present condition due to solid steps forward and gradual development towards their target. Throughout all communication and discussion, furthermore, possible points of contradiction and disagreement on articles to be protected as indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge and innovation had been avoided, in a search for practical measures for implementing this particular requirement.

Last to give his presentation was Hong Zhenling, Assistant Professor at the Graduate Institute of Journalism of National Taiwan University, and director of the Indigenous Communication and Culture Research Center (INDCACRC)His project, “The Right for the Dissemination of Knowledge for the Weak in the Digital Age – a case study of WATTA, news outlet for the indigenous peoples”, pushed the idea of a more autarchic form of data collection that leant on the village and local society, training forces on the ground, conducting investigations in the fields, publishing data and organizing research groups all being used as responses to sudden demands in the field. Professor Hong envisaged taking the indigenous citizen as the unit whereby to record any unit’s culture, history and lifestyle, opening up the multiple layers of interpretation and direction for the categorization of data. Learning from the ‘Middle Path’ (between knowledge and action), one could speak for the weak, open a dialogue between different ethnic groups, and use categorization as a means to re-establish the true relations and connections between peoples. In the future, Hong believes, the question of how to make clear indigenous peoples’ right to disseminate knowledge on themselves, as well as respond to the changing demands of the categorization process, will be a salient discussion point for INDCACRC.

Two months from now, TELDAP will come to a close. Whether or not the end of civilization does come, as the film believes, on the 21st of December, our own plans are already beginning to face up to the problems of preservation, continuation, development and utilization of data that will follow the conclusion of the project. The Program Director raised the idea that one should push forward the possibilities for protecting and administering archives through connections between the established professional networks and the relevant group resources, whilst keeping the issue of who exactly is to invest, organize and maintain these projects as another, serious question. Our scientific and technological categorization projects have initiated new possibilities for fresh and practical faces to be put on historical, cultural and technological questions, as they have slowly fermented under the rich resources of education and study, and of cultural production. We hope these new seeds of culture will remain well-watered far into the future, and that they will go on to produce fine saplings.