Sailing to Batan Island / 南島大使 航向巴丹島
Sailing to Batan Island
Text by Jean Li Photos by Jung-Hui Pao
The Chief of the Kaohsiung Aborigines Commission, Taiban Sasala led seventeen "Austronesian ambassadors" on a boat trip sailing for thirty-six hours from Kaohsiung Port to Batan Island in the Philippines. The trip was aimed at improving the diplomacy between Kaohsiung and the Batan Island, as well as allowing for some voluntary diagnoses of patients at the Batan Island.
After the "Austronesian ambassadors" were selected by the Kaohsiung Aborigines Commission, they underwent three days of seaman's training. On April the 3rd, the Ambassadors departed from Shouchuantou Wharf.
The Premier of the Executive Yuan, Mr. Frank Hsieh, and the Kaohsiung City Acting Mayor, Chi-Mai Chen, both went to the wharf to personally farewell the ambassadors. The farewell ceremony included singing and dancing by the Aborigines and ended with Frank Hsieh in association with everyone else raising their wineglasses to the Aborigines' safe trip.
The captain and navigator of the ship were Ning-sheng Liu and Bemhand Doerper respectively. Unfortunately, due to unstable weather conditions, the ship encountered rough seas and many sailors suffered from serious seasickness. After thirty hours at sea, they reached the capital of Batan Island, Basco, where they were welcomed by an applauding crowed, which allowed the seamen to quickly forget their seasickness.
The Aborigines of Batan Island and those of Taidong's Lanyu Island are very similar in appearance and in the language that they speak. When the Governor of Batanes Province, Hon Vincente S. Gato, first saw these visitors from Taiwan, he said, "This representative group should be representing Batan, not Taiwan".
After visiting the Batanes Province, the representative team went to another Island - Sabtang to check the health of some of the residents. There are two villages on the Sabtang Island with 3,000 residents and only one dentist, which shows the lack of medical resources available for the people. When they heard there were doctors from Taiwan, some patients walked for two hours to get treated. Dr. Kuo Eng-fang and the nurse Chia-yi Chang from Kaohsiung Min Sheng Hospital diagnosed about one hundred patients, with unfortunately not enough medicine for all.
At the end of the trip, "The Ocean Community Memoir of Batanes Province and Kaohsiung City" was signed to reinforce the relationship between the two cities. Interestingly, there are also quite a lot of fishing boats from Kaohsiung around Batan Island. A visit to Kaohsiung by the Vice-Governor of Batan Island is planned for the end of April.
The "Austronesian ambassadors" came back to Kaohsiung Port on April the 8th, after completing their mission. All members of the convoy explained how they had had many unforgettable memories. The chairman said that Batan Island treated the Taiwanese ambassadors like "brothers".
南島大使 航向巴丹島 文／李永鸞 攝影／鮑忠暉 高雄市原住民事務委員會主委台邦．撒沙勒率領「南島大使」團共17人，從高雄港乘帆船出發，乘風破浪36小時，抵達菲律賓巴丹島，進行訪問與義診，為「海洋首都」締造「原住民外交」新頁。 為了完成這項創舉，原民會辦理「南島大使」甄選，獲選者接受為期三天的密集船員訓練。4月3日，高雄晴空萬里，船員從哨船頭公園碼頭登上「南島大使船」。 行政政院長謝長廷、高雄市代理市長陳其邁都到場送行。啟航儀式中原住民唱歌跳舞歡送，阿美族巫師祈福，鳴竹砲驅離惡靈，達悟族人跳勇士舞。謝長廷等人向原住民祖靈敬酒祝禱，祈求航程安全順利。 「南島大使船」由曾經駕船環繞世界一周的劉寧生擔任船長，導航員是德籍的BEMHAND DOERPER，緩緩駛入大海，氣象不穩定，不時風雨交加，船身搖晃不已，船員都嚴重暈船，忍受痛苦30多小時，直到抵巴丹島首府BASCO，看到歡迎的人群，才暫時忘卻暈船的不適。 巴丹島原住民伊巴丹人與台東蘭嶼達悟人長相、語言幾乎一模一樣。 巴丹省長GATO看到遠從來自台灣「兄弟」，笑著說：「代表團不應該代表台灣，應該代表巴丹才對。」 參訪首府之後，代表團轉往離島SABTAN義診，島上有兩個村落，居民約3000人，只有一名牙醫，醫療資源極端匱乏。聽說有來自台灣的「神醫」，有些患者抱病走了兩個多小時趕來看診。市立民生醫院的醫師郭恩芳與護士鄭家誼共為一百多名患者看診，帶來的藥品都不敷使用。 結束巴丹島行程之前，台邦主委代表市政府簽署「海洋共同體備忘錄」，強調雙方今後要加強合作關係。高雄有不少漁船在巴丹島附近海域捕漁，巴丹島副省長月底前要到高雄來協商。 返航一路風平浪靜，4月8日返回高雄港，完成這趟「前進大海，2005南島大使船」任務，團員都留下難忘的回憶。台邦主委說，巴丹島民眾都將他們當成「兄弟」，熱情接待，完全不理會中共的打壓。 |