A new National Taiwan Museum exhibit featuring 20 indigenous Saisiat Tribe artifacts is set to open on Friday… not at the National Taiwan Museum in Taipei, but at the Saisiat Museum in Miaoli County. It’s part of an ongoing program by the museum to arrange for displays of aboriginal cultural artifacts in the communities from which they came.
The Saisiat one of 16 tribes of officially recognized indigenous groups in Taiwan. They are considered Austronesian, and therefore different from the Han Chinese majority culture in Taiwan. Their language and culture puts them in a group with the indigenous cultures of Hawaii, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other islands across the Pacific.
The National Taiwan Museum has already held similar local exhibits for the Amis, Atayal, and Paiwan tribes. The latest exhibit for the Saisiat Tribe will feature items that are over 100 years old, including a rattan basket and an ear ornament worn by someone of high social standing.
The head of the National Taiwan Museum, Chen Ji-min, said that what’s special about the exhibition is that tribal elders were invited to look through the museum’s inventory and help choose the items to go on display.
“Bringing these artifacts to the local communities started out as a museum exhibition, but the process has been about cultural identity, revitalizing the culture and even bringing the tribe together and creating the village and tribal awareness, and that makes it meaningful in a way that could supersede the purpose of the exhibition itself,” said Chen.
The exhibition is called “maSpalaw”, and will last from December 5th through June 7th, 2015, at the Saisiat Museum in Miaoli County.