Taiwan Indigenous Music

“It is vital to keep all potential pathways in view, to acknowledge one’s own biases and adherence to various prevailing ideologies, to interrogate imbalances within the field, and to take deliberate actions for change. It does not put one oppression against another. Nor do oppressions morph into a single undifferentiated mass. Rather, various oppressions (and privileges) are experienced simultaneously and shape each other; like colors in painting, each facet retains elements of nuance and distinguishability, and can be analyzed individually or in various combinations as needed, even though the full picture remains greater than the sum of its part” (Bates 2019, under “intersectionality”).

Through my Virtual World Music Pedagogy course with Dr. Bartolome, I learned the significance in implementing world music as part of a curriculum. I would imagine that in each classroom, each individual student will bring in new ideas and build the culture of the classroom. It is important that not only I acknowledge the diverse backgrounds of my students, but that I also acknowledge how my background is different from theirs. Sometimes, it’s difficult to find the balance of ensuring all elements of the curriculum can satisfy each individual students’ interest and needs. However, it is through recognizing the differences in the classroom and exposing them to different types of music that will slowly shape the individual’s perspectives on cultural differences. My hope is that my classroom would be a safe, equal, and enjoyable place for everyone.

For my final project in the class, I chose Taiwanese Indigenous Music as my choice of a culture that I would like to teach one day. The music is from my motherland and I had the privilege of researching and exploring the rich culture of these indigenous groups in the land that I grew up in. This unit focuses on the music from one of the sixteen tribes in Taiwan, the Amis. I implemented activities that enhances these elements that we learned, through planning a world music pedagogy curriculum that encouraged attentive and engaged listening, interactive listening, creating activity, and integrating activity.

Click here for “Taiwan Indigenous Music” Slides

Click here for Lesson Plans