Tags: aborigine | clothing | Sediq

This skirt is from the eastern Sediq tribe of Hualien County. The eastern Sediq refer to the group of Sediq that live on the eastern side of the Central Mountain Range.

Sediq means “person” or “human being” in this tribe’s native language. They originally inhabited Baishi Mountain to the southeast of Wushe. However, due to a growing population and the need for more farmland, the tribe moved to an area on the eastern side of the Central Mountains where there was a vast expanse of open fields.

There is a large variation in the patterns of women’s skirts between the Atayal and the eastern Sediq. This skirt of the eastern Sediq features a background of white hemp with small, colored patterns embroidered onto it.

This skirt was made using bleached white ramie to form the background. The weft is comprised of white, purple, dark blue and pink threads. In earlier times, the weft was made by weaving. Nowadays, embroidery is the preferred method. The most common pattern is that of multiple rhombuses in purple, blue and pink that cover the entire skirt.

This skirt is made from three pieces of cloth of 91 centimeters in length and 27 centimeters in width that were sewn together. The skirt has no straps for tying. It was held on by a waist band. In earlier times, waist bands were usually black. Or, the skirt was wrapped around from behind and tied in a knot at the edges.

Nowadays, waist bands can be black, yellow, white and red or pink and are made of yarn, sometimes with added tassels.

Some women would add decoration such as red thread along the margins of the skirt.

This skirt was mostly worn during celebrations and is a representative example of the skirts worn by the eastern Sediq women. There appears to be a stain or defect in the left upper corner, which may have been made by a heavy object.

Department of Graphic Communications and Digital Publishing, Shih Hsin University Digital archiving project of the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines