letter to friends

Dear Friends,

Wishing you and your beloved a wonderful year of the Snake.

I have been doing several interesting projects which including farming and building in 2012 and organizing a responsible working holiday now. We have been doing the millet farm project over the past year and have had our first millet harvest in the Fall. The millet public house was just completed in early January in 2013.

I am on holiday now, but am trying to get the next project going. On 2/28 to 3/3, combining students of the course of Cultural Studies of Tourism and 20 off-campus volunteers, FATS Makapahay (in Amis tribal language this means the most beautiful and powerful), we will stage a holiday to promote the concept of being a 'good' tourist, including organizing a responsible tour for students and holiday makers. We aim to build an ‘open kitchen’ for traditional indigenous foodway practices and to learn and implement indigenous ecological knowledge. We will learn about indigenous cultures through working together with the community Masters and tribal elders who have years of expertise in local construction.

I also work with students and the FATS team to build an edible garden at NDHU. We hope to start from the campus and continue to spread the idea to communities. We believe ' If you eat then you're in.' I also want to invite you to become an honorary member of FATS Center (Food and Tourism Studies). Let me know if you are interested to join us. Of course, your ideas and comments are always welcome. We are working on our English website now, but before it begins, you are welcome to check our FATS website: http://food-and-tourism-studies.blogspot.tw/

I am really enjoying my 'rooted' fieldwork on campus which has been inspired by masters’ wisdom and my own embodied experiences. It's not easy to deal with some of the paper work and rules, but I am glad and so proud of our students who have broken some of these rules. Our university is very supportive too. It's a great learning experience for me and now it's time to turn these experiences into words.

Have a wonderful year of Snake. Let's keep digging up something new in 2013!

Best Wishes, 

Joyce