Youth Development Administration （YDA） of Ministry of Education’s “Youth Community Participation and Action 2.0—Changemaker Project” encourage youth aged 18 to 35 to engage in community affairs, and act with diverse thinking. 2023 silver award winner “利嘉婦女養成班” team and bronze award winner “青年 musaura ta” team, both are Puyuma youth, observing that in the past, the main cultural interpreters of tribes were mostly men, and the local knowledge accumulated by women was quickly lost, so they tried to sort out the plant knowledge and traditional cultural context, hoping to recover and pass on the daily life wisdom of tribal women, and the exclusive cultural role of women in tribe.
The team “利嘉婦女養成班” located in Taitung County began to invest in an action project in 2022 to establish a tribal women's association through women's collection work and establishing the structure of various tribal organizations. In 2023, the action will be spread to all age groups of the women's association, and launched an action plan to produce a tribal calendar, by interviewing elders about traditional crop types, growing seasons, millet farming, and traditional rituals, collected traditional knowledge and matched it with plant growth periods, rituals, farming, division of labor between men and women, etc., edited and painted into a tribal exclusive monthly calendar, hoping that through the production of the calendar, the empathy of the tribe can be enhanced, and it is also expected that women's ritual activities can be resumed one by one in the future. Then on the basis of the tribal calendar, the timing of the millet ritual can be reconstructed, and the ritual songs of the tribal women can be sing.
The “青年 musaura ta” team, also located in Taitung, actively preserves the traditional culture of the tribe. When they saw that the tribe's unique "kisiw" （herbal wine cooked chicken） dietary formulas only retain in a few female elders’ memories, they with the title of "kisiw" cuisine, hope to reproduce the relevant plant knowledge in the therapeutic formula. The team first interviewed tribal female elders to sort out and record herbal therapeutic formulas. They also conducted on-site investigations on the herb processing process, visited existing herb growing areas, and drew a map of the growth of herbs in traditional areas. Finally, they worked with tribal women to replant herb gardens, gradually complete the cultural knowledge interpretation system of the Puyuma tribe, and look forward to reappearing the gradually disappearing "kisiw" culture reappear on the land of the Puyuma tribe.
There is traditional culture worth preserving everywhere in life, and youth are trying their best to pursue and revive the culture of life through their own strength. Want to know more stories about youth’s local actions? You can follow the official website of the YDA （www.yda.gov.tw） and the official website of the Youth Community Participation and Action 2.0 （https://changemaker.yda.gov.tw）, and join the YDA FB fan page to stay up to date with the latest information.
The team “利嘉婦女養成班” engage in community action and engage women of all ages to participate.
The team “利嘉婦女養成班” rediscover the timing of millet harvest festival by editing and drawing the tribal calendar.
The team “青年 musaura ta” follow female elders to learn about medicinal herbs and rediscover traditional dietary formulas.
The team “青年 musaura ta”learn to grow herbs, and draw the map of the growth in traditional areas of the herb garden.