For many Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, singing is far more than artistic expression. It is a living vessel of memory, history, and cultural transmission. From the songs of forestry workers to ancient tribal melodies and ceremonial chants, music holds the relationships between Indigenous communities, their ancestral lands, and their ancestors.

Taiwan's Indigenous peoples have endured successive waves of colonial rule. During the era of Koxinga, when Taiwan became a base for the Ming loyalist movement against the Qing dynasty, many Indigenous communities across the western plains were forcibly displaced or driven to extinction. Beginning in 1896, the Japanese colonial government's assimilation policies relocated many Indigenous peoples from the Central Mountain Range into concentrated settlements under state control. After the Nationalist government arrived in Taiwan in 1946, another wave of assimilation policies sought to transform Indigenous languages, cultures, and traditional ways of life.

As many Indigenous people left their homelands to earn a living, working in mountain logging camps, aboard distant fishing vessels, or moving from one construction site to another in the cities, they continued to sing. In societies where history was traditionally passed down orally rather than through writing, songs became a way of recording history, preserving memories, expressing joy and sorrow, and reflecting the struggles and resilience of Indigenous peoples navigating a rapidly changing world.

Presented as a lecture-concert, Ipo DEMALADAS, guitarist of the Nanwang Sisters and Indigenous Peoples Representative on Taiwan's Council of Indigenous Peoples, will share how the Nanwang Sisters have used music to preserve Pinuyumayan culture. He will explore how song serves as a powerful medium for preserving history, healing historical trauma, and carrying culture forward across generations.