00:01A group of indigenous Taiwanese set off on Monday in a hand-built wooden canoe to paddle
00:07across the Bashi Channel to the Philippines, reviving a maritime route that had been dormant
00:12for hundreds of years and re-establishing a historic cultural connection.
00:16The Tao people of Taiwan's Orchid Island, located about 50 nautical miles off the southeastern
00:22coast of Taitung, share ancestral ties with indigenous communities in the Batanes Islands,
00:28north of Luzon in the Philippines.
00:30The 20-seat canoe, named Ovayan or Golden Friendship, was built by craftsmen from six communities
00:37on Orchid Island as part of a government-backed project.
00:41Around 60 people will take turns rowing during the roughly 24-hour journey.
00:45This is the first time to use the Ouvayan River, to the Badan Island, to the Badan Island.
00:54Over 300 to 500 years, we haven't been able to use the boat for each other.
01:00So, in this project, we have been building the Ouvayan River with the Badan Island and the Badan Island.
01:08To make our culture and language and language continue to continue.
01:40So, we have been building the Ouvayan River with the ocean.
01:43to perform their dreams and to do what people want to do in their age.
02:00The Bashi Channel is a strategically significant waterway linking the South China Sea to the
02:05Pacific Ocean and is frequently patrolled by Chinese warships.
02:09Orchid Island is a popular tourist destination, but is often cut off from Taiwan due to poor
02:15weather and its remote location.
02:17The Tao are one of Taiwan's smaller indigenous groups, with a population of about 5,000, representing
02:25less than 3% of Taiwan's 23 million people.
