‘So much of what we hear these days about Taiwan, in the media, focuses on national security issues, and few people in Australia know about Taiwan’s culture, and especially its Indigenous culture and artists,’ explains Dr Sophie McIntyre, co-curator of a First Nations arts exchange project between Taiwan and Australia.
The project, entitled Grounded in Place, is the first of its kind between the two countries, and has been developed as a long-track project that began in 2021 with an online symposium, followed by the publication of the symposium papers in the peer reviewed journal, Pacific Arts.
The final stage of the exchange is currently underway. Last month, McIntyre travelled to Taiwan with First Nations artists Vernon Ah Kee (Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples) and Mandy Quadrio (a Trawlwoolway/Pairrebeenner woman).
This week (10-20 July) the Taiwanese contingent – including two Indigenous artists – are in Queensland , where they will participate in the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) and give talks in Brisbane.
The two visiting Taiwanese artists are Yuma Taru (Atayal people), who is one of Taiwan’s most established and internationally recognised artists as a keeper of Atayal Indigenous culture, and performance and new media artist of Atayal and H?-l? descent, Anchi Lin.
‘It’s been an amazing journey so far… I initiated this project as I think it’s important, and timely, for both countries and the artists,’ McIntyre tells ArtsHub.
L:R: Artists Akac, Vernon Ah Khee, facilitator Dr Sophie McIntyre, artists Mandy Quadrio and Yuma Taru, co-facilitator Dr Fang Chun-wei and artist Anchi Lin. Image: Supplied.
The value in taking Aboriginal artists to Taiwan
McIntyre says the project, however, is rooted further back than the past three years. ‘I’ve been collaborating with Dr Fang Chun-wei, Head of Exhibitions and Education at the National Prehistory Museum, since we met at the Australian National University in the early 2000s, when we were both doing our PhDs. The museum where he works focuses on Taiwan’s Indigenous history and culture and its Austronesian connections.
‘Like Australia, Taiwan has a long history of colonisation and there are many issues Taiwan Indigenous peoples face that are not dissimilar to Australia’s,’ McIntyre continues.
Regarding her selection of Ah Kee and Quadrio, McIntyre says, ‘Although Mandy had previously visited Taiwan for a short holiday, Vernon, who has Chinese heritage, hadn’t. In fact, it was Vernon’s first time visiting Asia.’
In a conversation at the Queensland State Library (QSL) this week, the artists discussed the value of the exchange to each of them. Ah Kee said: ‘I was surprised that it was very familiar to me, because of the climate and the terrain, but also when you travel to another country and speak to Indigenous people, you have an understanding of a bigger story about native people worldwide. And you don’t really understand that until you till you go there.’
He added that such exchanges offer a ‘big opportunity’ for artists. ‘When you meet other native people internationally, it makes you understand your own people more, because we understand ourselves as a world culture people. I felt very much at home.’
Quadrio agreed. ‘One of the most valuable outcomes of this exchange experience, for me, was that it has given me a greater insight into understanding the complexity surrounding Indigeneity in Taiwan.’
She tells ArtsHub: ‘This includes issues such as colonisation, Indigenous recognition or lack thereof, politics, language and land. My intention is to maintain and continue to build on relationships with Indigenous Taiwanese artists and curators. By working together I believe we can amplify each other’s voice.
‘It was clear that there is a strong focus on the importance of community and maintaining traditional, cultural practices,’ Quadrio says, adding that she is hoping to return for an extended stay and to collaborate with the Indigenous Taiwanese artists they met.
She speaks fondly of meeting the artist Akac, an Amis man from Taitung, who they visited in his traditional dwelling. ‘On visiting his work studio, Akac shared his extraordinary weaving practice, where he produces an array of traditional and contemporary cultural objects made for domestic, economic and spiritual purposes. His aim is to pass on skills to younger Amis.’
But like other Indigenous Taiwanese artists, his practice has also moved into video and sculpture.
McIntyre, who has lived in and visited Taiwan for 30 years, says: ‘I don’t want to speak for the artists, but I think we all came back with some fresh insights and inspiration.
‘Building relationships and trust takes time,’ she adds, ‘not only with individual artists, but also with institutions.’
Sharing culture is a two-way street
After studying in Canada, Anchi Lin returned to Taiwan in 2017 and began learning her native Squliq Atayal language. Her works are related to decolonisation and self-identity, and she is particularly interested in the intersection of notions of identity, sovereignty, gender, the environment and social norms – using video, performance, cyberspace and installation. She describes coming to Australia as having an impact on how she thinks about Indigenous visual language.
Lin says: ‘I’m very thankful for this exchange because, as emerging artists, having this opportunity is very rare,’ adding that has also given her an opportunity to learn from our Elders. ‘I know we just arrived, but to be able to see so many Australian Aboriginal artists – and how they use visual language to express their thinking – I think a lot of the format is very different from what I see in Taiwan. So this is also something I want to learn from.’
Lin was most recently featured in 15th Kassel Documenta (Indonesia/Germany, 2022), Artspace Aotearoa (solo exhibition, New Zealand, 2022) and Asia Art Biennial, Taiwan (2021), and is quickly growing an international reputation.
Yuma Taru, in contrast, is an established textile artist and would already be honoured in Australia with the title ‘Elder’. An artist committed to revitalising Atayal weaving, she established the Lihang Workshop – a creative studio and social enterprise developing Atayal culture – in 2003. Her installation pieces have been exhibition in the 2023 Gwangju Biennale, the 2022 Taiwan Art Biennial and 2021 Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane.
With Fang Chun-we translating during their visit, Taru says, ‘Preserving culture is a very important thing for me, because as Indigenous people, I would like to have some kind of exchange that we can share on what happened in the past, and also share our understanding of our situation now.
‘So coming to Australia, and also greeting you in Taiwan, is a very valuable way that we work together to buy opportunity – that we can find a way to work out how to base our contemporary situation,’ adding that she has been very inspired, ‘because we can see our situation in a bigger picture and the similar situation in Australia, this made me have more courage to face our problems.’
During their stay in Taiwan, the group of artists presented a panel discussion, which McIntyre said ‘generated a lot of discussion in the audience and on social media,’ in particular questions raised by Ah Kee about the lack of criticism of Australian Aboriginal art, which was picked up in a local discussion on Facebook by the Taiwanese art community.
‘As an Australian Indigenous person, I see that we share many similarities as colonised people,’ says Quadrio, adding that both she and Ah Kee found that their ‘conversations inspired challenging and rigorous debate within the arts community’ they visited.
During their stay in Taiwan, Ah Kee and Quadrio spent time in the remote mountain village of Atayal, where Taru lives, assisting her in preparing the native plant ramie for weaving. ‘Given that we travelled widely across the island, this cultural exchange helped me to develop a broader understanding of the arts in Taiwan,’ Quadrio tells ArtsHub.
Lin concludes that to see the Queensland Art Gallery, and how First Nations artists are presented in Australia, has been a mind-opening proposition. ‘I see how visual art can bind the history and the artist as a person, how can you meet the history in one picture and you bring up more discussions from one image. That’s very interesting for me, and I’m still learning how to bring that together in my future work.
‘They have different perspectives [in] Australia in teaching Indigenous people. This inspired me that we have to have our own perspective.’ She continues: ‘It made me think about now in Taiwan, and how we will go when we … have a national Indigenous museum. I understand that it is really very important that we have a new idea of Indigenous mediums.’
Yuma Taru and Anchi Lin will give an artist talk at IMA, the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in Brisbane on 20 July, from 5.30-7.30pm. Registrations are requested.
The exchange project has been largely funded by the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan, and supported by Queensland University of Technology, the National Prehistory Museum and EvaAir.
Co-curators of the project are Dr Sophie McIntyre (QUT, Brisbane) joins Dr Fang Chun-wei (National Prehistory Museum, Taiwan).
