Pisirian Music Festival

On February 7th, Pisirian is holding a music festival, along with a sports festival on 6th February, which is organized by a group of young Taiwanese indigenous people.

Pisirian is a small village on the East Coast of Taiwan, which is located about 55 km to the North of Taitung City. It is home to the Amis tribe of Pisirian. The Amis are one of the 16 officially acknowledged indigenous peoples of Taiwan.

The village’s name, pi-siri (sheep)-an, means “a place where sheep go”, and refers to the traditional practice of the indigenous Pisirian tribe to keep sheep and to engage in subsistence agriculture.

However, since the 1600s, the island of Taiwan and its indigenous population have lived (and are still living through) both external and (ongoing) internal colonization under different colonial regimes. The seizure and exploitation of indigenous lands by different colonial regimes have altered or destroyed many traditional ways of life of the indigenous people, and their languages and cultural practices are on the verge of disappearing, or have already disappeared.

For the indigenous people in Taiwan, their livelihoods, their cultural knowledge, including its languages and music, and their cultural knowledge reproduction, are symbiotically linked to their indigenous lands. If the indigenous lands are lost, the others will inevitably follow.

This is also the case of Pisirian. According to the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation’s report in November 2018, Taitung’s Chenggong Township Office announced the plan to use an empty piece of land that previously served as a public graveyard and softball field, to rebuild it into a commercial park for wedding pictures and camping, along with a sewage treatment plant. The Pisirian tribe, especially the youth, criticized this plan because of its insufficient consultation with the tribe, and expressed its fear that the tribe will eventually lose its indigenous land, which passes down from generation to generation.

The case above serves as one of the many examples that the indigenous land of the Pisirian tribe, its boundaries and its traditional use, continue to be ignored by both the Taiwanese government, the Taitung county government and business and real estate investors, which are only interested in short-term profits rather than a long-term preservation of the land, the environment and the livelihoods of the indigenous people.

Therefore, the music festival will serve as a statement for the protection and against the national and county governments’ and investors’ exploitation and destruction of Pisirian’s indigenous land and cultural life. It will host various music groups, especially indigenous and local music groups, to share their music and provide a platform for discussions, to share ideas, thoughts and future plans on how to revive the indigenous village life and to protect the indigenous land.

The music festival will preferably employ local staff and serve as a market space for tribal people to present and sell their local produce, which will, in return, support their livelihoods. Furthermore, the organizing committee will raise awareness about environmental protection, e.g. by providing environmentally-friendly tableware and holding a beach-cleaning event.

The estimated costs of the event are 332.800 TWD (~ 9.417€ / 10.798 USD). A part of it has already been raised. The organizing committee of the music event hopes to succeed in raising the remaining part (200.000 TWD ~ 5.660€ ~ 6.489 USD). It will be used to cover the costs of the musical/technical equipment, the costs of energy (electricity) and other necessary facilities to host such a music event.

The music festival will be free and open to everyone.

Thank you for your support and for making the event possible!

Link to the event's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/events/342585453001818/

Dear all,

Please bring your own tableware (chopsticks, spoon etc.) during this two-day festival as a way to respond to the issues of environmental protection. Let’s do our best for the environment.

There will be no disposable tableware at the Pisirian Festival. For those who do not bring their own tableware, there will be 100 pairs of rice chopsticks available at the various vendors. Each pair of rice chopsticks can be purchased for 10$ (New Taiwan Dollar). Since they can be reused, you will be able to take them home.

Location: BaishoulianWaterfront Park

Pisirian Youth Association Tel.: 0917928737

How to get there by public transport:

TRA Hualien Station —> Hualien Bus towards Chenggong (3hrs) —> get off at: Sanxian Bridge

TRA Yuli Station —> DiingDong Bus towards Chenggong (1hr) —> get off at: Sanxian Bridge

TRA Taitung Station —> DiingDong Bus East Coast Line towards Jinpu (1.5hr) —> get off at: Sanxian Bridge

How to get there by car:

When coming from the South on Highway 11, please turn right at 111.5km; when coming from the North on Highway 11, please turn left at 109km. Follow the signs to Pisirian.

Band line-up

Pawpaw鼓樂團

漂流出口 Outlet Drift

共犯結構 Accomplices

徐子晧 Tzu Hao Hsu

瑪格拉海的改硬 Kaying no Makerahay

查馬克 ZAMAKe

比西里岸的音樂 Music from Pisirian

階層演出

婦女家政班

老人吟唱隊

Estimated costs (detailed)

item	TWD	EUR/USD
performance fees	140.000	~ 3.962 / 4.542
equipment (stage, audio, lighting, tent, generators)	80.000	~ 2.263 / 2.595
mobile toilets	10.000	~ 283 / 324
rental of facilities in case of rain (community centre, 2 days)	4.000	~ 113 / 129
promotional material	5.000	~ 141 / 162
stage	50.000	~ 1.415 / 1.622
souvenir costs	4.000	~ 113 / 129
site insurance	3.000	~ 84 / 97
beach and site cleaning utensils	3.000	~ 84 / 97
staff for February 7th	10.000	~ 283 / 324
lunch boxes	8.000	~ 226 / 259
subtotal	317.000	~ 8.969 / 10.284
5% of subtotal (miscellaneous, unforeseen expenditures)	15.800	~ 447 / 512
total	332.800	~ 9.418 / 10.798