Meeting – Qalima #1: It takes two hands to clap 孤掌難鳴 (12 Aug 2025)

I’ve been working with Etan Pavavalung, Grace Guo, and Angela Chen on cross-border connections for Indigenous communities on the Pacific Rim. They call the project Qadjai, a Paiwan (Indigenous Taiwan) word meaning ‘connecting lines.’ This project aims to improve the quality of life for Indigenous peoples through the sharing of knowledge and rejuvenation of traditional cultural activity. Think workshops, seminars, performances, and exhibitions. More information on the micro-site I have created here.

I am developing an extended series of regular monthly online meetups under this project. The intentions of Qadjai is ambitious, as the connections we want to make are beyond what has been established today. Effectively, we are chasing down a hunch, or the shared notion that Pacific Rim communities have historical and cultural links that have been lost. As an example, the word lima and its varied spellings (rima, hima, cima, etc) persist as the number five across a large number of our languages. These online meetups will be that space for low stakes sharing, with the expectation of increased familiarity and deeper exploration as a future result. To that end, we have titled the meetings qalima, meaning hand, from the Proto-Austronesian. More explanation here.

The first meetup is tentative and exploratory, emphasising shared intention (it takes two hands to clap). I will be hosting and exercising my interpreter skills.

Qadjai site here.