John's redemption
"In the past, I didn't have self-confidence, and would just mess around and get in fights," says John, a youth group leader. The 21-year-old John is covered in tattoos. In his junior high days, he was a violent kid, roaming the streets with a sword. Sakinu attracted him to the youth center, and got him to try many things he'd never done before, such as giving public speeches and leading activities for village kids.
"It took ten years, but my brother finally got me to settle down," he says of Sakinu. John has remained in the village, working in recycling. Not only has he become a big brother to the village kids, but his girlfriend--an ethnic Chinese who's studying Japanese at National Chengchi University--has become a sort of popular big sister around the village as well.
The Paiwan youth group members go through various stages, just as a sprouting seed must go through various trials before its leaves and branches can grow and mature to the point at which they can provide shade. Every year after the harvest festival has finished, the village elementary and junior high students all take Sakinu's "bravery test." The younger kids gather at the home of the village chief to perform dances and jump through fire. Then a group of big brothers rush in and run off with one of the children. They take him to the foot of a mountain behind the village and make him climb a 200-meter tall slope alone, in the dark.
"Kids now are really afraid of the dark, because they've lacked the opportunity to encounter the darkness of night and nature," says Sakinu. After successfully climbing the mountain in the dark, the children come to their ancestral spring. Sakinu covers them in mud to symbolize their passing the test of nature. At this time, after the blazing campfire, the big brothers wear their formal traditional clothing and stand before the mountains, giving the children a view of their ancestors' likeness.
"What I want is to hold a ceremony that will raise goosebumps and move people inside, not one that is only for appearances. Through personal experience, the children not only get in touch with nature, but also hopefully form some collective memories. In the future, they'll feel a sense of belonging in nature," says Sakinu.
Sakinu asked the elders about ceremonies. He gathered ideas from myths and borrowed from the customs of other tribes, and put together what he thought was a kind of ceremony that would go straight to the heart. He also used ceremonies as a way to bridge the gap between the generations and to help them understand each other.
"Sometimes I am really thankful that so many of the details of our ceremonies had been lost, so I could do as I saw fit and had fewer limitations," he says. Even in the "tradition" spoken of by the elders and the old photographs from the Japanese colonial era, a strong Amis and Puyuma influence is evident.
Sakinu and his youth group members don traditional Paiwan garb and sing in front of the homes of their sworn brothers, displaying their pride in their heritage.