The early stage aborigine have lived different lives for different inhabited environments, Truku live in deep mountains all year long and they have deep emotions towards the nature, especially towards the clan plants which are closely linked with their lives. The traditional meals, weaving, bamboo houses and traffic all belong to Truku culture, among them, weaving is the most characteristic one, now it is also the most popular and most successful assets for Truku tribe to promote the culture industry. Although many tribe studios and outlanders have adopted the color matching and weaving technology, they have lost sight of the hardships that their forefathers have suffered when they collect the raw materials and few people understand the protophyte-ramie and the method and procedure to collect ramie yarn. Few elder have experienced this history for the changes of time and the influence of Japanese governing and Chinesization, are there any culture elder left in the tribe nowadays? The teachers and students of Jianqing Elementary School together with the volunteers of NDHU Sunny Club have borne the responsibilities of culture ambassadors and carried out intensive research in the tribe, they have undergone the operation and data compilation, they helped the local school to set courses with the assistance of their school resources, they hope to program the planting of the ramie field with the human resources and material resources of the district, they also hope to create series of activities in the future to pass down the culture and spread the life of the tribe.

Difficult problems

Actual conditions of the research

(5-1) Technology obstructions

At the beginning the students only know how to surf the internet and how to type, so we have spent a lot of time on teaching them to use digital instruments and make webpages. 

Teaching the students to use digital video camera, digital camera and digital record pen mating the school information courses. The tutors have used the opening hours of school Computer Room at noon to teach the students to make webpage.

(5-2) Language

The interview and experience objects are mainly the elder of the district, they are almost more than 65 years old, and they mainly use tribe language to talk with us, the students cannot understand them. For the tutors, although they are local people, they are also not quite clear about the meaning of some main old words and expressions. 

During the interview, we have tried our best to record it with digital video camera and recording pen, and when we come back to dispose the data we would ask the parents and some elder who can speak mandarin for help. If the elder have described some items, positions or some operations, we would invite them to express it with body language or repetitive movements to strengthen our impressions. 

(5-3) Experience

This is the first time for our school to take part in Cyberfair, so we are not very clear about all the work flows, this has caused some conflicts between our school activities and this research, and has delayed our research progress. 

The teacher in charge of administrative work flow would communicate with Mr. Cheng of Hope Agent Development Association at any moment, and if we have any problem about the entrance, job schedule and web work, we would call Cyberfair personnel directly. For the conflicting part, we could use the long vacant time in winter vacation to cooperate with the team and complete our mission. 

(5-4) Concept

This Cyberfair project is the presentation of a research, the research team should have correct attitudes about it, the whole works including the panel discussion, group division of labor, collection of data, interview skill, upload the learning, the operation of information equipment, data digitization, image dispose and webpage manufacture are so extensive that we may meet many perplexed dilemmas. 

(5-5) Team communication

(5-6) Cooperation and division of labor


　

After we have fixed the subject, the division of labor is the key factor for us to obtain abundant materials, the traditional saying "The wisdom of the mass exceeds that of the wisest individual." has told us the importance of cooperation and division of labor. 

(5-7) Progress control

　

As a matter of fact, we have not done a good job in process control, especially for the upload time of progress report since this is the first time for us to take part in Cyberfair. If we did not record our process constantly, this may affect the later reports as well as later jobs, and we also could not entirely present the whole job schedule. 

At the beginning of the term, I have chosen the X Extreme Challenge League, which is a sport competitive league, but later I was chosen by this team, so I have to spend a lot of time on participating in different kinds of activities in New Aspen Association. At first, I was not very happy about this, but I have learnt how to plant ramie, how to weave, how to concert MIDI to MP3, how to use image management software and how to make webpage, and I am very glad that I have met some new friends at Hongyeh Elementary School. Although in these months, our team members have to use the holidays to do interviews in Hualien and use lunch-break to collect data in Computer Room, we are not afraid of hardship and troubles. Finally we also want to thank our teachers and the elder sisters from NDHU.

The community interviews have given me the chance to enjoy Truku culture, I think this activity is very meaningful, and I have also learnt many new computer skills and knowledge. I have learnt weaving in the process. Since I have learnt this with grandma at home, so weaving is not very hard for me. As long as you can do every movement preciously, you can master it after some practices, it all depends on your attitude. I want to thank Mr. Hsu and Mr. Ai for taking us to the interviews, and I also thank Yoyuho, Yiyang and Uhai of Hongyeh Community for receiving our interview.

In this interview, we have our own laughter and tears. I am very glad that after each interview, our teacher would take us to different parts to play and they would also invite us to eat some food. And if we have finished the jobs that our teacher have assigned, we could surf the internet freely. But we have to plough the land and do the weeding when plant ramie, and our teachers would let us stop even if blisters develop on our hand, it is very laborious, and I do not like this. However, I have learnt many untouched precious experiences, I want to thank our teachers and the elder sisters from NDHU for helping us to conduct the interview and to collect data. I am happy that so many people care for us. 

I have interviewed Grandma Yuyuh in Red Leaves Village for many times. I used to think that the female are good at weaving, but now I have learnt that the complex weaving only happens after the steps of scraping ramie, collecting ramie yarn, throwing, spinning, cooking, dyeing, sun drying, wraping, and so on. Although it seems very easy for grandma, it is not so easy for us when we try it. 

Mr. Gariyi•Jihoh once said that my character was similar to the Kebayan ancestors, whose work efficiency is unsurpassable. I hope my work attitude and method could exceed others after this tribe culture research. 

I am the youngest one in the team, I want to thank our teacher, the elder sisters and my seniors for their support and encourage. Although my typing speed is very slow, I would try my best to be the culture pioneer and to help my schoolmates and my juniors to learn Truku culture.

Although I have not spent too much time with Jianqing Elementary School teachers and students, I have had deep friendships with them, I am very happy to stay together with them and to learn their own cultures; after the communication with their teachers, I have learnt how to help the children. I am very glad we could still hold these meaningful activities. I think the most important part is to help the children to identify themselves with their own culture and their birth place, and I also think passing down our own culture is a proud responsibility.   

I want to thank the teachers of this school for their help to us and to the children. I wish more and more students could join this team to pass down the ancestor culture.

Since we also have to prepare, we could not participate in their activities all the time. We have found many books related to aborigines weaving in the internet as well as in the library, which has given us a deep understanding towards aboriginal culture. No matter what kind of resources, we would sort out data and read them. The students have sorted out the firsthand data after the field interview, and then they would upload these data to the internet, so that people of different culture background could enjoy the forefather's wisdom, and this is also what the students have done in this half year. What impressed me most is that the students have combined the community and the traditional culture through their efforts. They have reclaimed a land in Jianqing Tribe to plant ramie in the hope of everybody could value the significance of weaving and the preservation of art. All the students hope one day everyone could work together to protect the ancestor spirits of Truku.

Doctor Lei Qian says that we should walk into the tribe and study from them with a modest heart. I think this is the object that I want to participate. I am very glad to get along with the students, that we could spend so much time with the students is what I expect most. Although I am not very good at computer, I have the chance to conduct interview with them to study together with them, and I have also learnt many computer skills, such as the using of Photoimpact, how to upload the files and how to record, I think this could be quite useful in the future. Previously I have little chance to carry out field interview as other students, so we all listen carefully to the tribe tales that the elder have told us. Some of the tales are solemn and stirring, some are beautiful and energetic, we would treasure all these treasures, the beauty of Taiwan is concealed in these tales. I am sure the students would surely carry forward the Truku data with their collection of data.

The subject of this activity is ramie weaving, now many people have gradually forgotten the traditional weaving culture, this could help the students to recognize their own culture and to learn that weaving is not confined to the beautiful clothes, it also contains the wisdom and legends of the ancestors waiting to be exploited. 

 project is a seed of hope planted on the children which would blossom in the future. And this project has also called on the whole Jianqing Tribe to take actions to protect their own original culture.

When my mother died, the family wanted to bury her clothes and equipments together with her, I insisted on keeping her weaving case and the most beautiful TRUKU dress; I am deeply moved by the traditional weaving legend in the books about the traditional weaving culture of Atayal Sediq written by Mrs. Rui-lin Tzeng. Perhaps it is these two rare articles of my mom as well the elder and the scholars that have stimulated us to finish this project. I think we have added new references for traditional ramie weaving culture knowledge through our great effort, I hope we could share this with everybody. 

I am very glad to have the chance to join Cyberfair with the students. Although our aim is not to gain a prize, I have found that the student have shown high study interest and have used many basic capacities neatly. If the students could exert their ability and have gained the joy of study through this activity, it is a successful and meaningful project. I wish the schoolchildren could learn a lot through this internet competition. 

The most interesting part in the activity is to conduct interview with the children. I think everyone has tried the best no matter the result, I also want to thank the Cyberfair for holding this affair so that we would have the chance to join the competition. 

I am a teacher of Han, but I am deeply attracted by Truku culture through this experience, I also want to transfer this affection to more people. At the beginning, I only knew that Truku weaving is very famous, they could weave many beautiful clothes. Only after a deep study, do I realize its depth and become crazy about the complicated yet easy beauty of Truku ramie culture. 

If we did not take actions, the old plant utilization habituation would gradually disappear in the society（Chung-he Chuan, 2002）. But the same as Chian-tai Wang's words(1997), "The tribe people should first learn to face the nature with a devout heart, and they could only progress and get inspiration from nature after they have learnt to be kind to nature."

Everybody has his unique life experience, one would benefit a lot when this particular life experience becomes synodic with the environments. Through this searching experience, I believe the Truku children must have identified themselves with such beautiful culture the same as me and they must have learnt a lot. 2007.02.24