Echo from Our River：A Study on the River Festival Rituals (Kaisisi cakʉran) of Kanakanavu and Namasia Ecotourism

The Kanakanavu are the spirits of the Nanzixian creek, which had come here three hundred years ago to nurture a beautiful culture and language. Kanakanavu tribe was classified as the Tsou since the Japanese decolonized period. A hundred years has been living under the name of others, and even our own traditional areas are now also mostly owned by others for centuries. Today, Both Dakanuwa and Maya trible along the Namasia river, are the only place can be settled in terms of Kanakanavu people. In 1983, after the improvement of traffic road, a lots tourists coming caused the river environment damage and pollution. Until 1990, when the township chief have pay attention on the rich streams, waterfalls, valleys, geothermal and other resources to start the development of ecological conservation and ecotourism. Especially, a limited use of ecological conservation - fishing and river Festival Rituals (Kaisisi cakʉran) of Kanakanavu have been turned as an ecotourism attraction. In this study, the rituals of Kanakana people and the human and river relationship were explored. The concept of eco-cultural resilience was applied into the hunting and fishing techniques and stream relations during the river festival ceremony in light of the ecological wisdom, cultural heritage and ecological education of tribal people. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of Kanakanavu s river rituals in ecotourism and cultural heritage to enrich the cultural diversity of Taiwan s indigenous into streams conservation.