Magic Machines - Hey Mister

North Korea

Rukai Meets Korea

具體叢林 A Concrete Jungle

An amazing event was not without its conflicts and assorted troubles. Untested and unproven, nobody really knew at the outset how things would turn out. The team from Wutai did not know anything about Korea or our hosts and the reverse was equally true even though the Sori organizers had made a special trip just to meet the Rukai Team. Nobody knew, perhaps, except for me, and Brusan. We had the experience, the vision, and we knew it could work out with a little magick and a push here and a pull there. We made it through the concrete jungle of doubt, distrust and the hypnotic effects of the quotidian, to reach and realize, for a moment, something greater than the sum of its parts.

Brusan Batsagene writes: 未來韓國前一週又一次天災,使霧台鄉的道路全面山崩,巨大災厄,感到茫然失所. 使每一位參與者懷抱著悲觀懷疑的想法. 氣頭上最容易忘記爭吵的真正目地. 變成都在用心攻擊對方或傷害對方. 原本的吵架焦點都模糊了,傷害卻已造成. 但在過程中不論天災的造成或者人僞的因素. 大家經歷的挫折中一一克服,放下了身段達成目地. 完成台灣國民外交之外,並且讓全世界分享台灣魯凱少數民族文化. 最終還是完成了這探韓國演出. 一個微笑就是乾涸心靈的良藥苦口. 一個團結可讓弱勢族群,淳樸的部落更加力量. 在韓國九天內很慶幸16位沒有人發生任何意外. 大家做到了完美的宣傳活動. 九天內在國際表演中受到觀眾的熱烈掌聲之外. 也影響了國外人士,感動的淚水縱橫. 感謝霧台代表者: 龍秀花; 顏文哲; 巴金水; 巴功海; 麥泰山; 杜彣豪; 巴菊英; 柯菊英; 杜惠珍; 巴呂蘭香; 巴秀真; 柯菊英. 感謝熱愛霧台的台灣國民: 許忝福 李盧英美 吳禎敏 吳心惠的協助.

Tanubak and Brusan - Enjoying the Moment

With Han Jiyoung, Festival Organizing Committee

Brusan at Hanok Village, Jeonju, Korea

One of the many Sori Festival Performance Venues

Gulune and Ashana at Hanok Village, Jeonju, Korea

Gulune and Bandere at the ICLEI Future of Cities World Congress

Rukai Team poses in front of Seoul's Gwanghwamun

Brusan with Jindo Korea Traditional Musicians

Festivals and Events - New Forms of Cultural Tourism

Rukai Meets Korea

This Fall (9/28-10/6) Rukai Indigenous Peoples from Taiwan meet Korea. Invitations from the Jeonju Sori International Music Festival and ICLEI Incheon Future of Cities World Congress brought a team of 16 Rukai performers to this country.

The Rukai are a small indigenous tribe in Taiwan with a population of less than 10,000 people. They are unique in costume, language, and history. They are very famous in Taiwan for their singing, dancing and costume, three inseparable elements of their intangible cultural heritage. The Rukai Cultural Arts Performance Team offers the most authentic and representative combination of song, dance and costume. Although there are other professional indigenous performance groups in Taiwan, they usually mix the tradition and costume of any of the 14 recognized tribes on the island into a single performance thus diluting or distorting the true cultural context from which these elements of song, dance and costume come. Instead, the Taiwan Rukai Indigenous Peoples Performance Group offer only the pure musical tradition of the Rukai people in warm and emotional performance with the strength of tribe and history in their voices and movements. The music they sing has been handed down from generation to generation.

The Rukai team met organizers and performers from Korea, Jamaica, France, China, Cambodia and other World People. They sampled Korean hospitality and saw some of the sights during their free time between performances. Festivals and events are playing an increasingly important role in the facilitation of egalitarian cultural tourism. In other words, cultural tourism that does not favor the rich in their pursuit of the culturally authentic, but works to provide opportunities for people of diverse cultural backgrounds to come together and exchange traditions.

In this sense the Festival and the Congress were venues where cultural exchange and issues concerning cultural sustainability were brought to the attention of world dignitaries and common citizens alike. Cultural tourism should work to raise the consciousness of global human diversity and human rights while strengthening forms of local culture such as traditional song, dance, costume and art.

The Rukai Cultural Arts Performance Team overcame the odds to get to Korea. On September 19 a major typhoon dropped a meter of rain on their mountain home in Taiwan, destroying roads and bridges. To come to Korea they had to literally walk down the mountain, an arduous day-long climb. But the sacrifice was worth it as they return home happy and proud of their culture and with the discovery of imagined world cultures made real.

Men who made the event possible (from Left) Director ICLEI Korea Office Mr. Chin Daeshik, Rusamukane, Dr David Teng Director General Taipei County Environmental Protection Bureau

Celebrating SORI

Posing with the Cambodia Team

Rukai Team

Cultural Exchange - Dancing with the 'Natives'? Who is the native now?

Performers at the Hanok Village

Performers take a bow

Basel with Performers

Stage Left, before the performance

The Rukai Performance Group in costume

Jeonju Sori International Music Festival Performance Hall

"Words" by Everynone, WNYC Radiolab & NPR

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

Reflections on the 2010 US Journey

From July 7 to August 20 Brusan and I traveled the great Northwest United States – Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and California. It was a circular journey in the sense that we arrived at and departed from SeaTac. It was also circular in the sense of being a return of sorts. Return to places, family and friends. A circular journey suggests renewal and in this case a ten year absence meant that there was plenty to renew. Old relationships renewed and friends and family re-discovered. Old stomping grounds re-visited. Things remain the same even when they are different. We are all older and hopefully wiser.

The journey was long and expensive… and worth it. Many people would never have such an opportunity. People met along the way were good, and friendly, and so generous (you know who I’m thinking of!). The only bad thing about seeing good friends and family is parting again. We had so many experiences – unforgettable – from the simple to the grand. Afternoon walks, chance encounters, sharing a laugh. Beautiful scenery, weather, company.

Returning to Korea I know that the journey brought Brusan and I closer. She had such an unforgettable time, and has come to know me even better, if that is even possible! The trip enriched our lives and the generosity of every one of you who we met along the way has made us more than we were. We miss each and every one of you. And we love you.