Over three thousand years ago, the first
inhabitants settled on the island of Taiwan.
Today, these indigenous people make up
less than 3% of the island's population,
and live in the shadows of the dominant Han Chinese culture.
Hualien, Taiwan
Thirteen years ago, when my kid was in
school, he was mocked... he was mocked!
His classmates told him he was a barbarian.
They said, "those tattoos on your ancestors' faces..."
"are no different from those on street gangsters."
When my child came home and told me this...
I was very shocked!
ATAYAL in association with T.I.C.E.D.A.
and the Taiwanese United Fund Present
A lot of mothers would teach
their kids their native language.
But, for some reason she felt that
it would not benefit us at all.
She never talked about her past or her heritage at all.
She made a concerted effort to shield us from her culture.
And from her language.
Orlando, Florida
Ok. One. Two. Three
The festival has now begun.
These people that we see as tribal people.
They have thousands of years of history.
And with these cultures and languages.
There's a lot of knowledge that's contained.
Relatively few people know how to commune with nature.
Only indigenous peoples can remember
the gift that God has given them.
To conform and survive in a modern world.
People have to learn a dominant language.
Go through a modern education. Giving up the
type of education they traditionally had.
We come and represent an Africa that insist
that, we the human being that walk this earth.
Should revel in the diversity
represented in the various cultures.
But we should also revel in the notion that
in these indigenous cultures, there are
aspects that each of us can learn from.
One of the reasons I started my non-profit and this festival
was to bring attention to the indigenous wisdom
and culture thats there for people to appreciate.
The indigenous cultures of the world
are very important to everybody.
We are in danger of losing a lot of what makes us human.
From thousands of years of experience. It's
all in danger of disappearing. And what's
needed really these days is for people to realize
the importance of that part of our culture.
The indigenous cultures of
Taiwan, they call them aborigines.
And I was a part of one of the twelve
tribes in Taiwan called Atayal.
It's a small minority in Taiwan. About 2% of the population.
And most of the culture is with
people who are much older. And who...
When they die out, the culture is in
danger of dying out if nothing is done.
That horrified me, because I
have a little son. Two years old.
I am determined that he has an opportunity
to discover his roots. Not from books.
But in person.
Johan
My son means the world to me. I'd like
nothing more that to have my son grow up.
Being proud of who he is and the culture where he comes from.
Not being afraid to share that with others.
I grew up not knowing anything about my heritage.
For all I knew, I was American. My Mom was from Taiwan.
But I knew nothing about where she was from.
I was born in Taipei, Taiwan. And that
was close to my hometown of Wulai.
My real father was an American soldier
who left my mother before I was born.
My mother worked really hard. She worked in
the city while my grandparents took care of me.
Back then in the 60's it was a tough time in Taiwan.
Taiwan was one of the poorest countries in the world.
So it was just hard for people to get the basics.
When I was three my mother met and
married my step-father, David Coolidge.
He was an intelligence officer in Taiwan.
We moved a lot. We lived in Germany.
And all over the United States.
And after see gave birth to my sister and two brothers,
my Mom focused most of her time on her children.
Growing up my mother didn't
share anything about her culture.
During the whole time I lived in the household
she didn't mention anything about Taiwan
except that her family was in Taiwan.
She wanted us to feel and believe that we
were American. So that we could fit in.
I probably resented being Taiwanese at the time.
So I had no interest knowing more about it.
Or embracing it. Cause that's what
made me different from everyone else.
It made it hard for me to fit in. And I remember
being teased because I looked different.
Teased because I was Taiwanese. But they didn't
know what I was. But they would tease me.
Make fun of me. Doing like Kung-Fu
and Chinese ching-Chong noises.
So of course I was very sensitive
about how people saw me differently.
And that didn't make me proud of being Taiwanese.
After I graduated from college. That's when she found out.
She went to the doctor for some pain or headache or something.
And she had cancer and she wasn't expected to live long.
At that time I was more like the father of the
family. I had two younger siblings living with me.
And I just took charge you know.
Actually I hid my emotions from them.
Cause I wanted to be strong for
them. I wanted to be there for them.
My brother Steve, I don't think
he reacted with tears and sorrow.
He actually turned it into something to be mad about.
Punched the wall. Or, you know,
he kept things to himself inside.
When I first found out she was sick, I
was in either the seventh or eighth grade.
My step-father told me "Well, you're mother
she has cancer. She's got six weeks to live."
Or something like that.
I was thinking about our relationship
and things that were left unresolved.
And I just thought about how, "Oh,
she only has months to live maybe."
And what do I want of her before she goes.
It's her life wish to go back and see her family,
which she hasn't seen in twenty plus years.
The only thing holding us back is a few hundred bucks.
It was sad. It was frustrating. And myself,
I didn't have the ability to help her out.
For mother's day, I thought, since
I couldn't take her to Taiwan
I would do the next best thing. And there
was this new them park called Splendid China.
She had tears of joy during that
day. She was so happy and touched.
It just reminded her of her past. And it meant a lot to her.
It was the closest thing I could
come to, to giving her, her wish.
And she had a great time. But I could
tell that physically she was suffering.
You know, the heat got to her. And
it also made me feel kind of guilty.
Because I put her in that position. But I
know that it was worth every minute for her.
I thought everything was fine. She talked to me and
kissed me goodnight. Then the next day I woke up.
She had something like a stroke.
Her mind was starting to slip away and she couldn'’t talk.
She was able to write.
Finally she couldn't write anymore, and the
last words she wrote was that she loved me.
It took me six months to really let go
of it all. And to really feel at peace.
Afterwards, I became more determined
to go to Taiwan and meet my family.
That's what I did the next year. I went to
Taiwan. And that's what changed my life.
Taipei, Taiwan
When I got to Taiwan I was hit like a ton of bricks. Whoah!
What is this place? Tall buildings. Signs I couldn't
read. Thousands and thousands of mopeds everywhere.
Then we went into the mountains. And I was a little nervous.
Not knowing what to expect when I met my family.
But when I walked up that winding path. And
I got to the door. And the door burst open.
There were dozens of people there
that I never remembered meeting.
I was excited to find out who my family was.
My family, relatives, from Wulai.
When I got to see my relatives I got
to feel their love and their warmth.
And their generosity, their open arms to me
What they were pouring out to me was their love for my mother.
And I just felt like I was part of their family.
Tony... I love you.
Wulai, Taiwan
We are in Wulai next to my great uncle'’s house.
This is Wulai village. This is the hotel
my grandmother and grandfather used to own.
My Mom was raised there.
So I explored. I did a lot of
exploring. I did a lot of walking.
In my discoveries of the village I realized
at first it was a tourist attraction.
A cultural attraction featuring these tribal dances.
And as I was watching them in awe.
The beautiful women in colors.
My aunt told me their heritage was a Taiwanese tribal heritage.
Something i'd never heard of. My aunt
told me the name was called Atayal.
This is my culture? I never knew any of that.
And I was pretty shocked. This is
something to be proud of. My god.
Here I was discovering a culture that they
were a part of. And that I was a part of to.
That I was quickly falling in
love with. And I had to know more.
And I wasn't really getting it from my relatives. So
I had to wait till I got back to the United States
to learn as much as I could.
Up until that time I only thought Taiwanese was just
Taiwanese. That really resembled Chinese culture.
I didn't know there was such a
thing as an indigenous population.
Actually, several tribes.
The Atayal culture was very similar to the
Native American culture. But at the time
they wanted to assimilate into the Taiwanese
culture and be just like one of the Taiwanese.
And they have a whole history of persecution
and assimilation and discrimination that
made it difficult for them to express
their culture. To be themselves.
They had to fit in. They had to be one of the Taiwanese people.
I can really understand my mother wanting to fit in.
Wanting to get ahead. Wanting to have a life without struggle.
Without harassment. And I think I realize
why she ended up marrying an American.
As many indigenous women did at the time. To
escape a very difficult life for indigenous people.
And I think it was too difficult
for her to share it with her kids.
So it feels like this culture'’s not going to survive.
It's not going to be around long with everybody
feeling shameful about it or resisting it.
And I really thought about how I
don't want this culture to disappear
before my own son, my own kids can
experience this for themselves.
I really wanted to share the indigenous
culture with people in America.
And all I had at the time were the internet and books.
So I realized I needed to create something
like the Indigenous Heritage Festival.
To bring the community face-to-face with my culture.
That experience of reaching out, and touching
and connecting, and the way they accepted me
into their group, was like being a part of their family.
There was once a beautiful land...
Mankind always dreamed of.
There was once a beautiful land...
Mankind always dreamed of.
A land without pain...
A land without sorrow...
A land that was evergreen...
where the flowers bloomed and the birds sang...
Legend tells of a land called Shangri-La
a land where God Himself once lived.
Alice Takewatan - Teach and activist, Bunun tribe
Enough singing... time to eat!
Alice is a leader really representing
all the tribes of Taiwan and the culture.
If there's anything indigenous in Taiwan, she
has her fingers in it. She's there to help them.
I met her at the Indigenous Heritage Festival.
Here Tony... you must enjoy this.
I'm really happy to see Tony, because I see...
the inner desire of someone searching for their roots.
Also, I really liked his approach
to life. He's very open-minded.
He always follows the path of his expectations.
To me, he's a child filled with joy and fulfillment.
His ultimate purpose is to tell
Americans and the world who he is.
Because of this, I was very moved.
During the whole trip, I was...
pleasantly surprised by what he said,
"I want to tell people who I am."
Because I myself am indigenous Taiwanese, I
also really want to tell the world who I am.
When Alice saw my desire to express my
culture and really gain a deeper understanding
she invited me to go to Taiwan on a
trip that she would help set up for me.
I realized quickly that she was a person who was so
deeply connected to the indigenous culture of Taiwan
that she could get me all kinds of experiences there.
Everything I could have wanted or imagined, Alice was
there offering it to me. Or she had the keys to it.
So I had to go.
I decided to ask my brother Steve
to join me on the trip to Taiwan.
To actually get a closer connection to the
indigenous culture that he witnessed at the festival.
He's a part of this culture. And he's a part of a
family in Taiwan that he doesn't even know about.
And that's something he's been missing for a long
time. His mother pasted away. His father passed away.
So there's something missing for him there. There's
something incomplete that he still struggles with.
I'm looking forward to meeting my relatives in Wulai.
I don't know how they expect me to
be. I'm just going to be myself.
The communication barrier is always
an issue. They don't speak English.
And I don't speak Mandarin or
Taiwanese. Or whatever the dialect is.
I don't talk much to begin with, so that's even twice as bad.
Steve and I never really spent much time together growing up.
So this trip is going to be the first time we
spend any extended period of time together.
Tony and me, how we interact has always been the same.
In some sense i'm still that little,
little, little brother, you know.
Our generation gap is so far that
for some reason, we don't meet in the middle.
It actually helps if you have a goal
to think about while you're there.
It doesn't mean you have expectations but...
just like I want to connect with my roots or
create relationships with my
relatives... just some kind of goal.
For me this trips a double-edged sword though.
In a sense I want to go. And in a sense I don't.
To me it's like, I'’m going there and I'’m gonna learn something
about my roots and where i'm from but...
It would be going there without Mom.
We might be bringing her back in spirit.
But for me I'’m more of a realist kind of person.
I'd prefer to have it the way she wanted
it... all of us going back with her.
Shumin
My wife Shumin had been away taking care
of her father for four months in Taiwan.
Hello. Hello. Look at us having fun.
It was so great seeing my wife again.
We should live here.
First I wanted to go up to Wulai and visit my relatives.
And give Steve the opportunity to meet them for the first time.
I'm kind of worried because my brother was out
partying all night. Which is fine except...
today was his day to meet his relatives. To get
to know them. And right now he's like a zombie
feeling sick. And when he's sick
he doesn't talk. He just clams up.
This is my younger brother... Steve.
Are you in pain?
Does he have any kids?
No... he doesn't have any yet.
Ah... they look alike.
Especially in the eyes. He looks like you.
We have a house full of kids. So we came out
to the playground so they could have fun.
And Johan's having a lot of fun right now. So I
get to spend some time with him before I leave.
It feels really good to be around the family,
the relatives who I haven't seen in a long time.
Even Steve's out here having a presence.
Alice wanted to show me what she was doing.
She took me to a village near Hualien,
where she taught the local school children
The traditional tribal dances and songs.
And she created a performance that she was
going to take to tour around the world.
And what was interesting is that they were
rehearsing for a trip to South Africa.
So it was incredible that Alice gave these
local children such an opportunity to
broaden their horizons. That's what was inspiring.
She was the driving force to bring these
people together and to give them opportunities.
Everything that I imagined that I could do to make a difference
she was doing way beyond what I imagined.
I saw her as someone I could learn
from. Someone that could nurture my own
desire to make a difference. And
it was just great to see her again.
My friend here, his name is Tony.
Hello.
Chinese have a proverb that says, "True sincerity
will conquer all of life's adversities."
I feel that, no matter where he goes,
he will spread peace and harmony...
the elements of indigenous Taiwanese cultures.
His approach and mine are the same.
As our guide, Alice gave us access to places
that most westerners wouldn't get to see.
She gave us access to people that
we wouldn't get to meet normally.
And she gave us experiences that I
wouldn't have even known to look for.
It was just... Wow! What a way to start.
Steve... I see his sadness. I see
his uncertainty about his future.
I think he needs more clarity for
his future, and to know where to go.
So, I wanted to provide him the opportunity,
because I want him to be able...
to express what he wants for his future.
I guess Alice offered me the chance to stay here for a
year. Living from tribe to tribe. Village to village.
All the villages of the tribes.
To be adopted by them. To live with
them. To experience their life hands-on.
There's almost no real sentence to describe it.
It's kind of jaw-dropping, someone
offering you that. At the same time
it's a life-changing experience.
Taitung, Taiwan
The next day Alice got us into an
international conference on indigenous issues.
It was attended by scholars, dignitaries,
leaders and the President of Taiwan.
President Chen Shui-Bian just walked by. He's
entered the prehistory museum of Taitung.
This is the young man you need to
talk to. This is Tony Coolidge.
I had a chance to meet indigenous people. And I
had a chance to sit down with some of the scholars
and I got to learn a lot from them.
Now we have twelve tribes.
They taught me a lot about the history of what the indigenous
people of Taiwan dealt with... had to go through
and what they're dealing with now.
People always say that the indigenous
people are just indigenous people.
Here they're doctors, taxi drivers, fire
fighters, policemen. That's good to show.
We were brainwashed that we were Han people. Chinese people.
That's why we were given the false impressions that
in Taiwan we only have Han people, Chinese culture.
In Taiwan we have multi-ethnic and indigenous groups.
The earliest groups to come to Taiwan,
mainly we look at the Dutch period.
Following the Dutch period is the
period of Chinese or Zhen Chengong.
Then from that period we enter into the Ching Dynasty period.
Their time in Taiwan and their treatment
to aborigines... um... there's a lot of
records of a lot of atrocity.
The Ching Dynasty was then displaced
by the Japanese colonial period.
Which begins 1895 till 1945.
At the beginning there's more violence. Japanese
don't know how to deal with aboriginals.
Aboriginals don't know how to
deal with Japanese. As time passes
although we can say that they tried to
pull them from their natural element
and tried to change their culture, society and language
they gave a lot. They brought things into
their culture. They brought education.
So I think you can say that the Japanese time to the
elders today often is reflected on as a good time.
For men the dominant society is on one hand
They need to protect their family.
But on the other hand they are the minorities.
They can not move up. So we see our men suffer from that.
They look to alcohol to anesthesia-ize themselves.
And we see men die very young.
And for those women, they have to
raise the household by their own.
It's a tug of war. Layers and
layers of oppression on these women.
We do need these people to exist. And to
have the language and culture preserved.
To build an educational program that
teaches children a sense of cultural pride.
That's my dream. That they can live with dignity.
I think for the future of indigenous
people, the biggest hurdle
indigenous people will face, is to be
what you are. And be something else.
So mutualism. Sharing. Being open-minded.
That's what I would like to see for the indigenous people.
To rejuvenate their culture. But also to share
it with people. And be open to other cultures.
I grew up in a very small village in Tainan county.
The whole village were almost all
native Taiwanese people. Or Han people.
So from childhood, the whole time, elementary
school, all the way to high school, I never met
anybody who's indigenous Taiwanese people. Never ever.
But I started to see a lot of things that amaze me.
I look like her!
I started to realize there's no difference between them and me.
We are actually all the same. Like brothers and sisters.
The cheekbones... they are like mine.
All of these are made of ramie. What are those for?
This shows how in the past, our clothes were made of ramie.
They can be very smart. They can be very intelligent.
They can be very creative as well.
We are all indigenous people!
We are all family.
They actually express themselves through
their art, carvings and paintings
to really express themselves. And that's
something that really opened up my eyes.
Opened up my horizons as well.
All the indigenous Taiwanese people, they express themselves
through art, through their singing, through their body language.
That's something when I was
little, I was told, don't do that.
When you wanted to smile you had to be more like a girl.
You don't smile like that. You don't sing
out loud. You don't express emotions.
They are so free to express themselves.
And a lot of times it feels like they are happier.
At the conference I met Tommie. He's an American living abroad
who documents and researches indigenous cultures.
This wall represents people as their
indigenous side and their blending in side.
You would only see this guy dressed like that in a ceremony.
These are the villages we are going to
look for. They're up in the mountains.
How are you going to get there? We are walking. 1500 meters up.
You said it takes more than one day.
Yeah, but I'’m going up by car.
We are going up as far as we can go.
Then walk for the day. Then walk back.
He was telling me a story about going deep into
the mountains to find long-abandoned villages.
Pingtung, Taiwan
We have a very long hike ahead of us.
A very difficult hike I think.
Honey, she's four months pregnant
and she's stronger than you.
Wow, my heart'’s beating fast.
Are we close? Are we half way?
Hey where does this road go? Is this a road?
Is this a road everybody comes up?
I'm really excited because this is my
first experience feeling like an explorer.
To explore something that's been lost.
So, this is it.
This puts me in touch with the culture at a deeper level.
Cause I get to see how they lived. Up till
now, I'’ve seen them living in modern houses.
But this is like a real village. The
way they lived. In a real setting.
These are probably at least a hundred years old.
As I was walking through the village, I
saw evidence of what tribal life was like.
I also saw evidence of the change in the village.
The first colonialism, with the church that I walked through.
It was abandoned. Broken down. It showed me
the first outside influence on these tribes.
And with that influences, part of their culture was lost.
Then I saw evidence of the Japanese occupation.
Converting the tribe from one that practiced their
own culture, to one that practiced Japanese culture.
That evidence was in the form of the police
station that stood watch over the village.
That showed that their lifestyle was changing.
Then finally I saw a house locked up.
It really gave me that sense of finality. I could picture
that family being told they were leaving this house and
leaving their life. To be taken somewhere to live
life the way somebody else was telling them how.
I can imagine them locking their door.
Locking up their place not knowing if they'd ever return.
The Japanese eventually took them away to the
cities, where they could be more controlled
and adapt to their society.
That led to the village being abandoned.
The tribal lifestyle being abandoned
by tribal people.
Even though they don't live here anymore,
they still put a lock to protect their house.
They put on the chain to show there
is hope... one day of coming back.
To the place I belong to.
It's very sad.
People live life because we have hope.
But we all know hope happens in reality.
So even though Tony is doing what he is
doing right now to preserve the culture
maybe it's not going to happen. But
there's always hope to keep us going.
That was just a symbol of the indigenous people.
Being abandoned, forgotten, lost.
And it will continue to be that way.
Until somebody brings it to light.
It could be my brother.
It starts with people. He can only
say so much before people act.
It's like leading a horse to water. Doesn't mean he'll drink.
People have to have more value to life,
before they'll value all life the same.
This experience made things more real to me.
I got to look into the lives of the tribal people.
This makes we want to meet somebody who's
lived that life. And had it taken away.
I didn't know where I was going to
meet that person. Until I met Su-Chen.
Su-Chen Wang Designer, Atayal tribe
Su-Chen is part of the Atayal tribe. And
she is as old as my mother would have been
if she was still alive.
She has such a great interest in her past culture.
She's weaving and creating textiles with the Atayal
patterns that she learned from her great grandmother.
She's actually incorporating it
into modern society, modern culture.
And creating something that actually today gets
people interested in what Atayal culture is about.
As an Atayal woman, I am a very
responsible person and willing...
to make any sacrifice for family.
I believe that giving is better than receiving.
Knowing that someone is benefiting
from my hard work, that makes me happy.
No matter what time, what place, I want to show the most..
Enthusiastic hospitality to serve Tony's family.
If they need help with anything, I will do
my best to support them on their journey...
toward finding their roots.
Wufeng, Taiwan
So we're in Wufeng. It's a village
of indigenous Atayal people.
This is the first Atayal region we visited.
The first connection with Atayal people.
I'm helping her fill an order of
thirty outfits she has due today.
This is traditionally women's work, but a
woman's point of view is a great thing to have.
Especially to connect with my mother.
So can you tell us where we are going?
We are going to visit the only one left
in this village with facial tattoos.
What is her name and how old is she?
She says she can't remember right now.
She says she can't remember because
we always call her grandma Yaki.
She can talk very well?
Yes, she is very active and talks a lot.
She talks about "thank God" and
"God bless us." Stuff like that.
Every morning, I pray by my bedside.
I always pray for family first.
I already see Tony as family, because
we're both from the same tribe.
I believe there is a God and that Tony has touched Him...
because I told him before we left that with God's blessing...
we'd be able to see Ya-Ki today.
Yaki
He comes from America. His mother is Atayal.
I am Atayal.
Where are you going?
I come to see you.
Can you speak Atayal?
Why do you come to see me? I look like a monkey!
I was mesmerized when I first met Yaki. Here was this little
woman who was over a hundred years old. She
had these glowing eyes just full of life.
Your mother is Atayal?
This was the first time I was meeting
someone from the Atayal tribe.
A living historian of my culture.
And she had a tattoo from ear to ear down to her chin.
And the tattoo was a symbol of maturity
and responsibility in our tribe.
She had to pass a series of tests to prove
her maturity. Which included weaving, cooking,
but mostly the weaving because the textiles were
actually the family heirlooms that had a lot of value.
And she knew we were there to see that symbol
of her past as something to be proud of.
After seven days the face starts to get back
to normal. The whole time it's all swollen.
It's crazy. You can't even see a thing.
For Yaki's lifetime she has seen a lot. Big
huge change from time to time in Taiwan.
And also in her life as well.
She used to live far behind those mountains.
When the Japanese came, their
policemen forced her to move down here.
Most of her family all passed away.
Except one of her daughters is still alive.
She said to me that she lived a life
where she didn't really know who she was.
She was told that she was tribal
during the early part of her life.
Then she was Japanese and had to take
that identity and language and name.
Then Chinese. Then Taiwanese.
And she said that's what her life was
about. Not really knowing who she was.
That's a lot to sacrifice. To just be part
of a tribe. To just say, "I am Atayal."
She's over a hundred...
I felt a closeness. I felt like she was my
grandmother. Or somebody who knew my great-grandmother.
She was there with them. And I felt that
connection to her as part of her family.
She is talking to you in her language because
she feels like you are one of her family... so
How many kids in your family?
Yaki treated Tony like she already knew him.
She wants to make sure Tony understands
what she wants to say to him.
She wants to share everything with him. She
keeps talking and talking non-stop to Tony.
I have been to visit her many
times with friends and teachers...
and I have never seen anything like this.
This kind of interaction only happens when you're with family.
I got a phone call from my sister. My father was in
the hospital. And his condition had gotten worse.
So the next day we all left and went back to Tainan.
I wasn't very close to my father when I was young.
But when I was older. Especially after moving
to United States, I got very close to him.
At the beginning my father doesn'’t like Tony.
There's a couple of reasons. Tony's American.
Tony is not able to speak the
language, to communicate with him.
And on top of that, he is indigenous
Taiwanese. My father didn't like that at all.
Tainan, Taiwan
My father started to get to know Tony, through all
those years and started to like him more and more.
At the hospital, Tony and I went
into the room... he was telling my...
father he was sorry he can't communicate
with him all those years because of language.
But he promise that he will take good care of me.
It was very good to be able to allow them
to have final closure with each other.
I just knew I had to be there for Shu-min and her family.
I also felt disappointment.
I thought, wow, this could be the end of what I came here for.
But there are, often times, more important
things in life that take priority unexpectedly.
Tony questioned that, maybe it's not a good
time, especially with father passing away.
But I said go ahead and finish
your trip. Don't have any regrets.
Later on in life you are going to look back
and regret if you don't finish that right now.
Life is very fragile. Once you're gone, you're gone.
So when there's something you really want to
accomplish. Your dream. You really have to go for it.
Hualien, Taiwan
Tien Kuei-Shih is a photographer. He's dedicated
his life to preserving that part of Atayal culture
by taking photographs of the
surviving members of the Atayal tribe.
I really got his dedication to his
culture and instantly bonded with him.
Thirteen years ago, when my kid was in
school, he was mocked... he was mocked!
His classmates told him he was a barbarian.
If I didn't do what i'm doing right now...
our future generations will always
think they are like street gangsters.
That's why I started doing this work.
I realized that these facial tattoos on my ancestors...
were symbols of honor and responsibility.
Not like street gangsters.
We talked about how I met an elder in Wu-feng.
And he actually offered to introduce me to three
others, who were elders with tattoos as well.
And I got excited about that.
How are you?
Very well. Thank you very much.
These elders were all different and special in their own way.
Sigi Uming
Sakai Iwan
Ipai Lodan
They call themselves Truku. A name they
gave themselves to distinguish themselves
from the Atayal of northern Taiwan.
There are only twenty people with the facial tattoos
who lived through the culture before the Japanese.
The first one I met was the oldest. I
think she was about one-hundred and five.
Here name is Sakai Iwan.
Before the Japanese came, we were able
to have these traditional tattoos.
But once they arrived, they banned our tattoos.
This is where my husband had his tattoos.
Ask about what she misses the most about the old life?
You know... mountain life.
When I was in the mountains, life was very good.
When I came down here life was very different.
When I lived in the mountains, we could
just climb the trees and sing up there.
Life was very carefree.
She was able to embrace life and just be happy about it.
But the next elder that I met... what she felt was loneliness.
And being different in this world.
I-bai Lodan.
I want to let her know that we come from America to see you
cause she is like a treasure that reminds us of our past.
I'm looking for my mother'’s history.
I think she lived alone. And lived
in very meager accommodations.
How she dealt with her challenges and all
her many years of life was resignation.
What is her memory of life in the
mountains before she came here?
Life in the mountains was good, because we
could get anything we needed from nature.
Life became harder down here because
money was needed for everything...
but we had no money.
We lived poorly under the Japanese.
Their way of life was not good fur us.
When the (Han) Chinese came to Taiwan,
yes, we did have our freedom...
but our lives were not good enough to earn
the resources we needed to live properly.
Life has been hard because my family has had many diseases.
There are some people that come to help take care of me.
But the lives of my family and I depend
largely on what little money I receive...
from the government.
Sigi Uming, she was the youngest of the elders.
She exudes this happiness of life. This appreciation of life.
She's a woman with only one eye.
And she didn't let it get her down.
I admired her for that. I admired her for not hiding
from her culture. Actually being very active in it.
When Japanese came, she was born.
What can people learn from Truku people?
In the Truku community we have
mutual respect for one another...
and a peaceful mind.
How old were you when you
migrated down from the mountains?
I made my way down here when I was nineteen.
When did you get married?
How old was I... twenty-one.
What would she like to see for the future
of the Truku people after she's gone?
Truku is a very specific community in Taiwan,
so inside this community I want to see...
each person treat one another with love.
Focus on God's love and worship Hlm.
By worshipping God, every Truku
moves forward powerfully, together.
When did she become Christian?
A long time ago.
When she was a little girl, there was a missionary.
Who... came here and let us know about God.
In the Presbyterian church for eight years. Then the Catholic.
I would like to come here to try to experience the simple life.
Like to go stay in the mountains and try hunting.
I would like to experience the
freedom the Atayal had in the past.
She said, it's good to have a simple
life. But also, you need to pray.
You need to worship God.
She said, praying cannot be stopped.
Because we are children of God.
She sees you as a later generation Atayal, so...
she says it means a lot to her to see you here.
Thank you.
Being with the elders really made things a lot clearer to me.
I got a sense of the struggles all Atayal
people had to go through, had to endure.
These women were there at the beginning of that.
And they had endured it several times over.
In trying to understand what my mother went
through, in trying to fit into her culture,
and to the Taiwanese culture of her time.
I could see her being resigned about it.
I could see her wanting to hide from it.
I could see her running away from it. And
that's what lead her to the United States.
And I could see how that lead to
her hiding it from her children.
Why I knew nothing about it growing up.
My mother did not tell me about my Atayal culture.
I don't think my mother learned about it very much.
I wish she could be with me to learn. And meet people like you.
She asked if your Mom had tattoos too.
His great-grandmother.
She says you've done something very special.
Something she thinks is very special.
Tell her thank you.
Hello to everyone.
I hope you have a good day.
Thank you very much for coming.
I believe Tony must be very proud
of his mother's culture now...
because there is no other tribe
that has what we, as Atayal, have.
I believe he is very honored and excited to be a part of it.
What I hope for once he returns to America, is
that he not only takes care of his health...
but that he does not forget his Atayal blood.
Tony should not forget to be proud of being Atayal.
This is very important... Don't forget..You are Atayal.
He says, you've touched him very
deeply with your voices and spirit.
I hope to hear you again soon.
I am grateful towards Tony for taking
me to Taiwan. For the fact that...
he showed me where my home is at.
Steve... smile.
As indigenous tribes are killed out, we are killing
that part of ourselves out. That tribal togetherness.
Their lessons die out as well. And we don't see that.
Were becoming more mechanical. More capitalistic.
We worry more about the concrete and metal.
Instead of the matters of people.
I have so many people to thank to make this journey possible.
And Alice has already thanked many of them.
And Alice has become my adopted mother.
And you all are my adopted brothers and sisters. Thank you.
Everybody made me feel like part of a family. And
it wasn't necessarily that I was related to them.
But I think it was that what I shared that
was important to me, was important to them.
Good boy. Hold Daddy's hand.
Orlando, Florida One Year Later
Xander
Were in the middle of our move. We are
packing cause we are moving to Taiwan.
It really makes me feel i'm connected to
something that's beautiful and worth preserving.
Knowing that I'’m part of the Atayal culture.
I got connected to more of my
family. More of the tribal people.
Artist and musicians. Dreamers.
People that we share our roots with.
I just feel like I have to be there.
And see where that connection takes me.
She says "I'm very lonely right now. Because there is
nobody who has facial tattoo like me here anymore.
I got to see how little I really know about my country.
I feel very bad. I should go back to my roots.
And actually allow the roots to reach me.
To provide the nutrition back to me. To make me...
stronger to the place that gave me life.
It is so important to help with the preservation. To
help others in the world know about the tribal people.
And to give the tribal people the opportunity
to know what the world has outside of Taiwan.
I want to be a bridge.
You might ask "Why should we care about indigenous people?"
You can't imagine how much knowledge will
disappear if ten thousand languages are gone.
Being there to help them achieve their
dreams. If there's anything I can do...
I'm going to go there and make
the effort. That's why I'’m going.
Tony Coolidge moved to Southern Taiwan
with his wife Shu-min and their two sons.
Tony and Shu-min recently gave birth to their third son, Jaden.
Upon returning to the United States, Steve
Coolidge moved to the mountains of West Virginia.
He has yet to return to Taiwan.
Through his non-profit organization, Tony is currently
building bridges between the tribes of Taiwan
and the rest of the world, for economic and cultural exchange.
So for me, my dream is to actually have indigenous
people here have pride in their heritage.
Indigenous cultures around the world
are vanishing into history books.
Some experts estimate the number of living
indigenous Taiwanese elders to be less then ten.
We dedicate this film to them. Your courage,
wisdom and spirit continue to inspire.