After migrating from the island, some of the ancestors of today's Taiwanese went on to settle an immense territory covering the whole South Pacific, plus a part of the Indian Ocean. It is now known that these peoples went to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.
Field researches from the 1970s onward have established a link between indigenous Taiwanese and these South Pacific populations based on the Lapita style of terracotta. This connection was confirmed in the 1980s by linguists who concluded that Taiwan was the original source of the Austronesian languages. Subsequently at the end of the 1990s, with the help of modern science, this theory was confirmed by DNA analysis of the peoples living in the Pacific area.
To honor the Austronesian people in Taiwan, the Yang-Grevot family decided to collect all the quality artifacts it could find from their material culture, not only in Taiwan itself but also by buying from collections outside the island and returning the artifacts to their original home. These efforts were undertaken with the purpose of promoting the Austronesian cultures of Taiwan, both within Taiwan and around the world, where they are largely unknown.
In 2007, when this Web site was launched, the collection included around 200 pieces. Even this modest collection required the investment of large amounts of passion, time and funds to realize. It is expected that the collection, and of course the Web site, will continue to evolve and be enriched as often as possible.
A Rukai chief in the 1920s.
The frontyard of the chief house for the Rukai
and the Paiwan had a very important role as it
was used as a place to meet. Skull racks were
also not far away to display the trophies from
head-hunting.
The Yang-Grevot Collection is a private collection formed over the last decade through the efforts of a Franco-Taiwanese family in love with Taiwanese indigenous art and, in a more extensive way, with the Austronesian world.
M. Grevot and Ms Yang-Grevot were motivated by the desire that their three daughters
should grow up with an awareness of and respect for their cultural origins. In other words, they wanted to help them and their generation learn about a culture that belongs not just to the island and its inhabitants but also to the Austronesian world that originated there.
