Austronesian Tao people set sail on 300-year ancestral voyage from Taiwan to the Philippines

TAITUNG, June 15 — Battling huge waves, twenty Austronesian men in orange lifejackets set off on a hand-carved longboat into the western Pacific Ocean, destined for the home of their ancestral kin for the first time in 300 years.

The indigenous Tao people, native to the tiny Orchid Island 90 kilometres off Taiwan’s southeast coast, have close cultural, linguistic and historic ties with the Philippines’ Batanes islands and its Ivatan communities.

AFP journalists saw Tao crew members tying oars onto the “Golden Friendship” narrow watercraft and doing a test row on Sunday ahead of its 100-nautical-mile (about 185-kilometre) voyage to the neighbouring Philippine archipelago.

Setting sail on Monday, participants said the odyssey across the Bashi Channel will trace an ancestral sea route to strengthen longstanding traditional ties between the two communities.

“I’ve always wanted to visit the place where my ancestors once went and see what it’s like there,” oarsman Wu Hsi-lung told AFP.

“I feel that I carry the blood of this place and want to do something for my community,” the 26-year-old stand-up paddleboarding coach said.

The tatala – an intricately carved and hand-painted seafaring boat made from living trees – was traditionally built to catch flying fish to feed families and communities on the 45-square-kilometre Orchid Island.

It was originally “a tool for survival”, said Hsiao Chun-hsiang, a 50-year-old sound engineer and trip participant.

At a massive 12 metres long, the newly crafted Golden Friendship is an enlarged version of the tatala that can carry up to 20 people – making it “the biggest we’ve ever built”, Hsiao said.

Times have changed, and beyond cultural significance, the tatala has “evolved to meet the needs of tourism as well”, he said – becoming a cultural artefact used to attract visitors.

But it still carries deep spiritual significance for the Tao, he said, adding the red-and-white-painted vessel was “like a member of the family”.

Families and onlookers gathered on Monday to see off the seafarers, who expect to row through the night and arrive at their destination on Tuesday afternoon.

The voyage is the “first such journey in 300 years”, Hsiao noted, adding that many descendants of early Tao seafarers “wanted to take part in this meaningful event”.

Syaman Maraos, the trip’s organiser and chairman of the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation, said that the boat would be put on display upon arriving at its destination.

The 54-year-old, who was also joining the trip, hoped the endeavour would “help foster more exchanges with other peoples and countries across the Pacific, allowing us to continue and strengthen this cultural journey”.

He hoped Ivatan islanders living on Batanes would be able to row the Golden Friendship back to Orchid Island next year.

“It would be a major boost for maritime culture,” he said. — AFP