The Museum of Anthropology joined hands with representatives of Taiwan's Saisiyatpeople to organizean exhibition showcasing the indigenous group's traditional textiles and weaving craft on campus this fall. The textiles featured in the exhibition included original ancestral items as well as modern reproductions.

Called "Weaving the Ancestral Pattern (TinonNokaTatini' KaHinobaang): In Search of a Hundred Years of Saisiyat Clothing," the exhibition ran from September 22 to November 20.

The reproductions were woven by a group of 10Saisiyat women who spent three years relearning the weaving techniques of their ancestors. As reference material for their recreations, the women relied on Saisiyat family heirlooms as well as century-old Saisiyat clothing archived at the museum. The exhibition included a film depicting the women as they relearn the old weaving ways.

The festive opening ceremony drew a large audience that included many Saisiyat people. The ceremony also featureda blessing ritual of skewered pork and bamboo cups of rice wine led by Saisiyat elders and the singing of a traditional weaving song. After viewing the exhibition, the visitors congregated outside of the museum where they snacked on boiled pork and joined the Saisiyat people in pounding glutinous rice to make sticky rice treats.