IT archiving Paiwan Culture

Since implementing a project to bridge the digital divide between aboriginal areas and the rest of the nation in 2005, teachers in Wutan elementary school have guided their students and local citizens to archive Paiwan culture in spite of limited digital resources.

Most students in the Wutan school are Paiwan tribesmen. Teachers conduct tribal field studies on a weekly basis wherein students quiz elders on history. The project therefore not just bridges the digital divide, but it allows students to gain a feeling of the essence of their culture, as they returned to their homeland and attended their village conferences. In other words, this participatory exercise serves as a learning experience and a cultural touchstone.  

By interviewing elders, aboriginal children learn to respect and to appreciate their ethnicity, establish strong confidences in their culture . It is always a great challenge to integrate traditional culture of tribes into the modern society.   

The project of digital learning has improved the IT literacy in the community and the school. Particularly, it has helped create an archive of existing traditional folk arts (such as wood sculpture, dancing, music and music instruments) and tribal history. All of these information as well as on-line tribal language learning are available on the website http://www.paiyuan.url.tw/piuma/index.htm.