TAKEN FROM NATURE

Two Indigenous Artists Creating Unique Products Using Betel-Nut Leaf Sheaths

After a long period of marginalization, indigenous creatives are increasingly taking ownership of the traditional arts and crafts of their people, which often draw from the land and their surroundings. Many choose to present their artworks and designs in innovative and modern ways, creating unique products that preserve their people’s rich heritage by keeping it relevant.

If you visit Fenglin Township in Hualien County during April and May, you might see Liu Da-wei (indigenous name Yawi Akin) riding his motorbike around in sweltering heat to collect fallen betel-nut leaf sheaths. Although in some indigenous cultures in Taiwan these sheaths are used as food containers and hotpot vessels, they’re usually just left by the side of the road to rot.

Collecting about 100 per day, Liu is pretty much solely responsible for acquiring the 2,000 to 3,000 pieces that his design venture, Nature, requires per year. The brand’s Chinese name, “Na-qiao,” sounds like “nature,” and literally means “taking sheaths.”

Launched in 2016, the two-person company offers simple and elegant daily-life products made from this rarely used material, created with completely natural, eco-friendly processes. Currently, the team’s focus is on boxes of different sizes and “sheath paintings,” but they also collaborate with other businesses to explore new possibilities.

Liu, a member of the Atayal tribe who majored in Russian language studies in university, grew up in the city and did not have much contact with his culture before taking a job with the central government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples. He later joined an indigenous-event planning firm, where he was introduced to the betel-nut leaf sheath for the first time through an exhibition that also showcased shell ginger and bamboo leaves.

Inspired Collaborations

“There were many people using shell ginger in our tribal villages already,” he says, “but not many using betel-nut leaf sheaths. I thought, if I didn’t want to work in an office anymore, I could try to come up with a new way to use this type of sheath.”

The betel nut is important to many indigenous cultures, but both the cultivation of the plant and the chewing of the nut generally have a negative reputation in mainstream society. In addition to finding a new use for the plant and providing new meaning for it, Liu also wanted to encourage others to use natural materials from one’s environment, as his ancestors did. Although the Atayal don’t use betelnut sheaths, his business partner Lin Jun-yi’s (indigenous name Rahic La’om) Amis tribe does – but rarely in making products to be sold.

“We have seen more people using the sheaths in recent years,” Liu says, “and I hope that I can inspire other indigenous people to go look around their villages and see if there are any other eco-friendly creative ideas they can come up with.”

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges has been that both Nature creators are quite shy, making it difficult at first to promote their brand. They still mostly work with other designers or businesses instead of retailing directly to customers, but they try to participate in at least one design expo per year. Notable collaborations include a stone hotpot vessel-inspired light with designer Du Hsin-yu, which won a design award in Germany’s Red Dot design competition, and a room key card holder for Vivir Hotel, a boutique operation located in Jiaoxi Township, Yilan County.

“Vivir actually was interested in our boxes at first, but they were concerned that customers would think that the spots and blemishes on the sheaths were mold,” Liu says. “Instead, they thought that the material was suitable for their room key holders.”

They’ve also worked with floral artists and makers of tea ceremony ware. The latest partnership is with an embroidery design company. “I don’t know what the end product will look like yet,” Liu says with anticipation.