Truku / Taiwan
Wada inu ka Bubu da? = Where is Mom?
Huang, Jessie
(text/illus.)
Kids of Xilin
(text/illus.)
Sring, Ikuy
(transl.)
Taizhong: Gu shi jia wen hua gong zuo shi (The Storytellers), 2016. – [32] p.
ISBN 978-986-92978-3-7
Text Truku and English
Taiwan | Truku (people) | Cultural identity | Picture book | Bilingual book
Reading age: 6+
White Ravens issue: 2016
The narrator of this story is a girl of the Truku indigenous people of Taiwan. She returns from school to her sparsely furnished home, only to discover that her mother is not home. She is too frightened to search for her that night. In the morning, Mom returns from the mountains, heaving a pannier on her back packed with wild vegetables, her hands and arms pricked by thorns, only to immediately hurry out again to the town market, selling the vegetables in order to support her family. Author Jessie Huang, together with the children of the elementary school in Xilin, developed the story and illustrations to reflect everyday life for a Truku child in 21st-century Taiwan. The text went through many village elder meetings, before a version was deemed to genuinely reflect Truku language. It was only in 2004 that the Truku were officially recognized by the Republic of China, after having long suffered the consequences of Japanese and Chinese colonization – including loss of land, language, identity, and culture.