Indigenous Taiwanese from Orchid Island depart on Monday to paddle a hand-built wooden canoe to the Philippines across the Bashi Channel, reviving a maritime route that has been dormant for centuries. The group, led by members of the Tao (also spelled Tao/Tao people) community, sets out from Orchid Island in the Pacific Ocean roughly 50 nautical miles away from the Philippines, aiming to re-establish a long-lost cultural connection.
Both reports describe the journey as part of efforts to reconnect with ancestral navigation and shared historical ties between Taiwan’s indigenous communities and the Philippines. The canoe is described as traditional and built by hand, with the route taken across the Bashi Channel. The voyage is framed as more than travel, intended to revive cultural practice linked to past maritime movement that has not been maintained in recent generations.
The sources agree on the departure timing, the use of a handcrafted wooden canoe, the crossing of the Bashi Channel, and the purpose of restoring a historical and cultural link to the Philippines.
