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Hualien County Jianqing Elementary School (2013 CyberFair Project ID 7505)
Taiwan,
Taiwan R.O.C,
Hualien
Official Status:
Final Project: Ready for Judging
Teacher:
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
We estimate 6 student(s) from 10 to 12 will work on this entry.
Description of Our Community: Jianqing Village is located in the center of Wanrong, Hualien County, with Silin Village in the north, Wanrong Village in the south, Nanping Village, Fenglin Township in the east, and Central Mountain Range in the west. Jianqing Village is the smallest village in the township where residents are unsophisticated and hospitable. Approximately more than 90% of the residents in the village are Truku people. The Truku people are now highly populated in Sioulin Township and Wanrqng Township in Hualien County, and a few of them reside in other villages, Lishan Village in Chuosi Township and three villages in Jian Township – Chingfeng, Nanhua, and Fusing. In terms of the labor structure in Jianqing Community, most of the residents engage in agricultural, industrial, and service industries. There is no specific industrial operation in the community, and the labor forces have to look for working opportunities outside the community. As a result, the family functions in the community are incomplete, resulting in many educational problems and the population’s sense of loss. Therefore, the role and status of our school are particularly important. In addition to taking into account the physical and psychological development of children in the community, our school should also attach importance to the thematic courses of local culture and cooperate with private and government units, in order to systemically preserve the culture of Truku people. Our school established a cultural club to explore and investigate the culture, and the research projects of many themes have been completed and published, including Truku weaving, Truku rituals, Truku hunting, Truku facial tattoo, and Truku cuisine culture. Our school instructs students in basic academic abilities through education process, which also enables them to indirectly obtain abundant cultural intelligence.
Project Description: Witch doctors once enjoyed honored positions in Taroko tribes. In order to prevent this important traditional culture from disappearing, our Cyberfair Project aimed to preserve the customs of the witch doctors. From interviewing the tribesmen, we found that the "witch doctor rituals" begin with the witch doctor placing incense, millet wine, coin offerings, and the meat and organs of a wild boar on an altar. A prayer ritual was then carried out, and the coins and meat offerings were buried underground for spirits and ancestors to feed on. Witch doctors and their traditions once had prestigious status in the tribes and were important elements in Taroko culture. However, the cultural practice became neglected and had begun to disappear. In order to raise the awareness amongst tribesmen for their tribal customs and to prevent these cultural elements from disappearing completely, the team carried out field investigations and interviews. It was hoped that our actions would inspire new respect for traditional culture and create a record about witch doctors in textual and video formats.