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The "2012 Austronesian International Arts Award and Taitung Art Exhibition Tour,” which is slated to run from April 19 to May 7, will take place at the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
Austronesia comes from the anthropological term Austronesian peoples, referring to the ethnic groups living on islands in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, with Taiwan being the northernmost tip of the distribution, the Easter Island the easternmost, Madagascar the westernmost and New Zealand the southernmost. Many historical literatures have indicated that Taiwan is the homeland of the Austronesian people, and the Austronesian culture can be felt from the life and mood of Taiwan's indigenous peoples.
The Taitung County government has committed itself to the artistic exchanges among different ethnic groups. The Austronesian International Arts Award was launched in 2011. As a global art competition with no media, ethnicity and nationality restrictions, the award encourages contestants to reflect the historical changes and the current situation of the Austronesian people through the creation of art.
The 2012 award attracted 417 artists from 31 countries. The upcoming exhibition at the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall will display the winning works and a "tomoko,” a Solomon Island war canoe, one of the vessels built at the Austronesian Cultural Arts Festival 2012 in Taitung. Another wooden canoe known as a balangay built by Taiwan's Tao aborigines will also be on display at the exhibition.
After the Sinying Cultural Center in Tainan City, the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is the second leg of the exhibition tour. The opening ceremony will take place at the hall's Yat-sen Gallery at 2 P.M. on April 19.
