Bulaubulau

Bulaubulau — A Study
2018
HD video with sound & color, 12’38”
Sponsored by Live Forever Art Foundation
Special Thanks to Bulaubulau Aboriginal Village, Yilan, Taiwan

One of my uncle’s closest friends, who was a roommate in college, is a well known aboriginal singer and activist in Taiwan. Through their friendship, while my uncle was still alive, he became very active in advocating aboriginal rights and gave his support to many communities. The Pan family are some of the aboriginal friends who I have met through my uncle. The Pan’s founded the village Bulaubulau in Yilan, Taiwan. They started as a small ecological farm-to-table business over a decade ago. Since, they have established an experimental vocational school that offers the aboriginal youth in this region an opportunity to engage in a more integrative education system that considers their cultural diversity and complexity. It also provides students with a way to make a living through their work on the farm and from traditional crafts in order to support their families who are in financial need. This short film is a study on their journey to merge modern practices of self-sustainability with the preservation of aboriginal tradition and their natural environment.