太魯閣

你知道泰雅族、賽德克族，還有太魯閣族這些「彩虹民族」在服裝設計上的共同點是什麼？ 「祖靈之眼！」「帶著祖靈之眼，才能找到祖先並相認。」   那三族的服飾，又有何不同呢？Do you know what is the feature in common of the clothing design of the Peoples of Rainbow, i.e. Tayal, Seediq, and Truku? “The Eyes of Ancestral Spirits! (the diamond patterns on the cloth)” “With the Eyes of Ancestral Spirits on the clothes, we could eventually be recognized by our ancestors after we die.”   And what is the difference of the clothing design of the three? “Truku people like to put “the Eyes of Ancestral Spirits” on the pure white cloth to show “purity”.” “Tayal people have an abundance of clothing design, but most of them are based on red color, which means enthusiasm, blood, and the extension of life and generation. The red color has the function to drive out evil spirits as well.” “Seediq people like lighter hues and decorate them with “the Eyes of Ancestral Spirits”.”  

A weaver born on a mountain road

Thus told us Miciq Rangi as one of the Peoples of Rainbow, a Truku fashion designer from Eastern Taiwan about the rich knowledge of her own cultures. ‘miciq’ sounds like a lovely name, which means “road” in the language of Truku. The name actually came from the story of her own birth that when she was about to be born, her mother had to give birth to her in the middle of a mountain road as her birth was too sudden and they lived too far from the city. Perhaps for this reason, or perhaps it’s a common gene in every Truku woman that Miciq has a tough personality and is persistent with what she wants to achieve. Her tough personality can be seen from her learning of weaving, a must-learn for every woman of the Peoples of Rainbow traditionally. Whenever she made some mistake, her grandma would hammer at her head hard with a rigid bamboo pipe. Once she just made a mistake with one single thread while weaving, her 90-year-old grandma at the time then hammered at her head so hard that the serious wound made Miciq stay in a hospital for almost one month.  

Keep walking, and everyone has the potential to find his own way

Thanks to the strict training and her persistence, Miciq has eventually learned and mastered in the weaving skills of 14 Taiwanese indigenous peoples, especially in the improved indigenous clothing, and her excellent talent was recognized in many awards. She is also one of the very few Taiwanese indigenous fashion designers that have participated in some international competitions. Many Taiwanese competitors in some international beauty contests have put on the indigenous-inspired clothes already, showing the beauty of Taiwanese indigenous cultures to the world!

 Be persistent and you will see a fruitful result.

The saying by an elder has always been Miciq’s faith on her career of fashion design. She said, the most valuable that a designer could do is to be persistent and keep accumulating his potential, till his efforts are finally recognized and everything will be paid off! What makes me admire is that, on the road of fashion design, Miciq never forgot her identity and responsibility to be one of the Peoples of Rainbow, the best Weavers among Taiwanese indigenous peoples! She has kept creating so many fantastic works with the spirits and the essence of the Peoples inside, and eventually spreads the beauty of Taiwanese indigenous cultures to the world and to the world’s eyes!   Now let’s enjoy some beautiful works of Miciq:

• Make-up: 施曉雯
• Models: 雷婕、古古
• Photography: 蔣禮安

 

Read Also

• The fan page of Miciq: 《原美學工坊》

Since last week, Miciq’s studio has started a column in our platform Mata Taiwan, sharing the beauty of Taiwanese indigenous cultures with all of you!   Are you interested in sharing what you see in Taiwanese indigenous communities? Or anything else about Taiwanese indigenous cultures you wanna share with us? No matter you write in English, Chinese, Spanish, or even other languages, just write to us: [email protected]  

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Source & Photo via 《原美學工坊》