Filipino Ifugaos Learning Weaving Techniques from Taiwanese Atayals Overseas

Taiwan Insight

 I wrote about Ifugao OFWs in Taiwan. Another article I wrote was about linking Taiwan aborigines and Filipino aborigines. I visited the Taiwan Insight website and found an interesting article about revitalizing indigenous weaving. This would be an interesting thing when Ifugaos are now going to Taiwan to find new ways of indigenous weaving:

Seeking Alternatives through Overseas Experience

Through weaving revitalisation, traditional textiles become part of the cultural identity of these Indigenous peoples. More young Indigenous people appreciate their weaving culture and want to learn weaving techniques. However, it is strenuous to weave consistently as a weaver. Weaving is considered to be a highly labour-intensive task. Traditional weaving tools cause health problems, including backache, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and impaired eyesight. In addition, it is hard to find a tutor to teach weaving due to the declining number of weavers and the continuous loss of weaving skills. In Yuma’s studio, she created a mentorship programme for young weavers. However, she can only train a limited number of weavers, and weaving promotion is still in process.

Two Indigenous weaving organisations face the same challenges and want to learn experiences from other Indigenous people abroad. The Council of Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan offered Kyyangan Weavers Association the opportunity to visit Yuma’s studio from December 3 to 8, 2022. Four Ifugao weavers, Marlon Martin, Paulette Crespillo-Cuison, Bumilac Li-ubon Marcelino, and Andrea Aswigue, travelled to Taiwan to share their weaving techniques, culture preservation, and product development knowledge at the Museum of Fiber Arts in Taichung City and Lihang Studio in Miaoli County. For the Ifugao people, weaving is not merely a kind of technology. It is profoundly rooted in their culture. SITMo built a weaving space and an Indigenous people education centre in Kiangan, Ifugao, so that weavers and children may practise weaving and learn about Ifugao culture.

In Lihang Studio, Yuma Taru explained her experience researching traditional textiles in over two hundred Atayal communities and how she classified and documented textiles from various Atayal groups. Nowadays, some weaving patterns and skills are forgotten. Even elderly weavers cannot recall how their mothers and grandmothers made their textiles. As a result, Yuma’s research team visited museums that collected old Atayal textiles, recorded those pieces, and remade new samples for their studio documentation. In addition, Yuma built a ramie garden for traditional weaving materials and an Atayal-dyed weaving culture park. She strives to pass on the ancestors’ way of weaving.

Four Ifugao weavers learned how to collect ramie from the garden and make ramie threads. Then, they demonstrated their special weaving skills, “binobodan” (ikat weave), to the Atayal weavers of the Lihang Studio. Subsequently, Ifugao weavers and Atayal weavers made a textile to commemorate their collaboration. Now, the textile is dyed and warped by Ifugao weavers, and Atayal weavers will complete it on their visit to Ifugao in 2023.

Has this come as a surprise that the more FDI-friendly Taiwan's aboriginal people are now teaching the protectionist Philippines' aborigines the skills for indigenous weaving? I also wrote about Yukan Hayung, an Atayal, who shares his experiences with modern Taiwan. It's a big concern as the Philippines' current structure with the Manila-centric system (often mockingly called Imperial Manila) and the lack of respect for non-Tagalogs? What's the use of criticizing China's treatment of minorities if arrogant Tagalog elitism is still rampant in the Philippines?

Just imagine the scenario where Filipino Ifugaos flew abroad to learn more about a common culture. The experiences of an OFW Ifugao in Taiwan might be another wake-up call. Armand Camhol sadly notes that while the mountains of Taiwan resemble his home, it's not his home. Taiwan's indigenous people have now a better future with Taiwan's economic policies. Meanwhile, the protectionist Philippines has even forced the indigenous people to fly abroad. Talk about flying abroad to try and learn more about their common heritage with the natives of Taiwan. 

Would've been the Philipines had been more FDI-friendly, maybe there'd be more knowledge of environmentally friendly innovation. One could learn from the late Lee Kuan Yew's green economics from his book From Third World to First. Maybe, Ifugaos wouldn't have to fly over to Taiwan and maybe learn better weaving techniques to evolve their culture.