Chinese Name：潘晨綱
Date of Birth: February 3, 1985
Place of Birth: Taitung, Taiwan
Did You Know?
Alikay hails from Kasavakan, a predominantly Indigenous Pinuyumayan community in Taitung. Working from the fundamental concept that "culture is life and life is culture," he has developed a variety of Indigenous-oriented businesses. Through these cultural revitalization efforts, the land has been recovered and the number of Indigenous youth willing to stay and work for their hometown rather than seeking work in the big city has grown.
Alikay graduated from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology with a Master's degree in Soil and Water Conservation. He previously served as the president of the Kasavakan Youth Association, during which time he was exposed to Indigenous community issues, sowing the seeds of his future service to his hometown. He later served as a program facilitator for the Council of Indigenous Peoples' Indigenous Vital Tribe Program and co-founder of Savak Limited Company. He is currently serving as director-general of the Taitung County Association for Kasavakan Cultural Development and as project manager for the Ministry of Labor's Multi-Employment Promotion Program in the Taitung County Association for Kasavakan Youth Cultural Development.
Through his participation in Indigenous cultural events such as Kemaderunan (the millet harvest festival) and 'Amiyan (the annual coming-of-age ceremony), Alikay has deepened his own identification with Pinuyumayan culture, joining in on efforts to revitalize and develop the culture of his community. However, long years of disconnection from traditional culture have made this revitalization process difficult. For example, in the past, Mangayaw (the festival of the great hunt), a traditional Pinuyumayan ceremony, had meant defending the traditional domain of the tribe and taking revenge on encroachments, strongly implying going out head-hunting. Today, in an effort to move away from the hostility and darkness of implied head-hunting, the elders of the community have moved to continue the festival in spirit, change it to Mucalun, which simply refers to hunting and gathering. Alikay is actively engaged in the search for ways for the spirit of traditional Pinyumayan culture to coexist in the face of the torrent of outside societal influences.
He believes that even though people today have their own roles and classes outside of the community when they return to the community, they should return to their place in the traditional structure. In 2016, he began getting involved with government subsidy programs, giving birth to a different vision for the community. Younger people from Kasavakan had been fighting for government subsidies to return to their hometown for years, ultimately organizing the Kasavakan Youth Organization (KYO) to work on community development and cultural affairs. Over the years, the organization has seen its numbers grow, and they continue to increase to this day. In 2018, through the Ministry of Culture's Directions on Subsidy for Indigenous Peoples Village Cultural Development Project, the long-disappeared youth gathering hall has been reconstructed. The following year, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, other cultural sites within the community were rebuilt one after another, including plantings corresponding to traditional buildings, in order to establish an overall cultural lineage.
For the sake of the land, they also got involved in public issues, including incidents such as illegal Cinnamomum kanehirae logging in Houshan and over-logging of Taiwanese sweet gum (Liquidambar formosana). Through petitions to the government and media exposure, they were able to exert pressure, helping stop the situation from deteriorating further and giving the natural resources of the area a chance to continue to thrive.
Going back to basics, Alikay has taken a "culture is life, life is culture" approach, continuing activities initiated by former KYO president Lin Wei-hua, particularly the restoration of the millet fields and the revitalization of hunting culture, to deepen the youth’s cultural education and identity. At the same time, he has pondered how the community should work to become self-sufficient and grow through its own strength after the government program ends. To this end, he has begun to try and transition from non-profit to for-profit, developing a variety of community businesses. Through the idea of "feeding the tribe with a boxed lunch," he developed "Indigenous Grass Boxed Lunch" to promote the food culture of the community through the medium of traditional food. He has also used this opportunity to work with other industries, including tourism, to develop the Kasavakan Food Tour, giving visitors the chance to experience Pinuyumayan cuisine first-hand, from gathering ingredients to cooking the meals. Through this, he is working to spur the community's cultural and economic industrial chains and accomplish the goal of sustainable management of special community industries.
(Photo courtesy of Alikay)