10:00am - 12:00pm | Sharing & Performance
Echoes of Paiwan Heritage: A Cultural and Musical Journey with Double-Pipe and Nose Flutes
5:00pm - 7:00pm | Screening & Conversation
"For the Love of Song : Oral Traditions of Paiwan Music" A Documentary Screening & Conversation
Qadjai is a word in the Paiwan language of Taiwan, meaning "connecting lines."
In the traditional life of Indigenous peoples, “lines” serve as essential mediums of material culture. From food, clothing, shelter, to transportation, various types of threads, cords, and fibers are indispensable. Before the adoption of calendars, Indigenous peoples used knotted cords to record and count the passage of time. Whether in hunting, farming, fishing, architecture, or decoration, "lines" play a crucial role in constructing the interconnected, cooperative, and interactive way of life within the community.
Among Taiwan’s Indigenous Paiwan people, elders often say, “na maqaqadjaqadjai a kinateveteveljan nua qinaljan”, meaning “the community is a group bound together.” The Paiwan term qadjai can be translated as “connecting lines.” Even with the advent of so-called modern civilization, the Paiwan language continues to embody this concept of connection. The word ljingas (literally, "iron wire") is used to refer to telephones, mobile phones, and borderless digital media networks—essentially recognizing the communication world of horizontal and vertical space-time transmission through the idea of "lines." This understanding mirrors the elders’ belief that “the community is a group bound together.”
The term qinaljan (community) as spoken by Paiwan elders refers to a coexisting collective, where people support and learn from one another. Rooted in a circular worldview, it reflects the interdependent relationships between individuals and between humanity and nature.