Event celebrates seafaring culture

[dArKeR]

A 16-day festival focusing on Austronesian navigational culture will be held from Aug. 13 to Aug. 28 in the Taitung Forest Park, to be accompanied by a special Austronesian exhibition at the National Museum of Prehistory in Taitung, festival organizers said yesterday.
"Because of the close relationship between Austronesian people and the ocean -- where they find their food, go adventuring and trade in goods or crafts with other islands -- we chose Austronesian navigational culture as the theme for the festival this year, and we have invited more than 40 groups from Hawaii, the Philippines, Fiji, Okinawa, Palau, South Korea and China to give authentic Austronesian performances," Taitung County Commissioner Hsu Ching-yuan (???) said yesterday at a press conference.

Diversification

Linguist Robert Blust and archeologist Peter Bellwood have argued that before the great Oceanic migrations took place, Taiwan was long a center for Austronesian linguistic and cultural diversification.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/08/04/2003266339