Taiwanese musician Yaway Mawring shares Indigenous culture by singing in Atayal language
Appearing in TAIWANfest 2021, the artist celebrates her heritage through song
Yaway Mawring.
Taiwanese singer-songwriter Yaway Mawring produces music in the Atayal language, sharing the Indigenous culture and way of life.
At TAIWANfest 2021, Mawring will perform Music and My Journey of Identities: Swasieq, My Hometown.
The Atayal language is something she wields with pride. However, it wasn’t always this way.
Mawring comes from the Swasieq tribe in Miaoli. She grew up in a mixed-race family with her mother being Indigenous and most of her upbringing and education coming from her father’s side, the mainstream Han Chinese culture. This wasn’t uncommon: Atayal language and tradition have largely been absent in most Taiwanese family education.
Her mom resisted her learning about her Indigenous Atayal culture. These days, it is common to see the two women conversing in their native dialect—Mawring’s mother’s mother tongue.
Mawring only began speaking Atayal after she became a mom herself. She even went back to school to learn and study the dialect from scratch. She also went back to the mountains where she and her grandparents used to live when she was little, searching for childhood memories and inspiration for life and music creation.
Upon recognizing the importance of her Indigenous heritage, she began teaching Atayal language and culture on YouTube.
As an artist, she sings in the Atayal language, hoping to share a way of life through her music. She hopes that more and more of her people, especially members of the younger generation, will gradually find their way back home and reconnect with their Indigenous identity.
Yaway Mawring.
In 2018, Mawring released her first album named after her tribe, Swasieq. This record documents every little detail of how daily life in the tribe looked like in lyrics and melodies. The following year, this album earned her the highest acclaim at the 30th Annual Golden Melody Awards, with two awards, Best Indigenous Singer and Best Indigenous Album. The same year, while raising her kids, she released her second album, ‘laqi’ ‘Tayal (Let’s Sing Together). It focuses mainly on nursery songs for children, all written and sung in Atayal.
Mawring’s third album, smpi’ Yaway (Yaway’s Dreams), came out in 2020. This album combines folklore and ballads with versatile music genres, bringing the traditional Atayal instrument lubuw (Atayal for Jew’s harp) into the songs. By using contemporary music elements, she redefines and interprets the authentic soul of the Atayal.
For more information, see TAIWANfest.
Post sponsored by Asian Canadian Special Events Association.