Mother is the important queen of every family! The artistic coffee of the Ami tribe, finding the treasure of matrilineal culture

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"for the Amis, their mother is the important queen of every family." Shu Mai Kazhao, director of the Tribal Queen Art Cafe, looked at Hualien Wuhe's grapefruit tea, alongside the plants her mother had brought back from her family's orchard in the morning, and walked up the stairs to the top floor, looking out at the green coastal mountains and green rice fields.

Shumai, who used to be a dancer, is now a cafe manager. The tribal queen was inspired by her mother. "the Ami used to be a matrilineal society, and every mother has a high status in the family." Two years ago, Shu Mai and his brother Yosifu Kacaw (a famous Ami artist in Britain) went home together to change their hometown into a cafe and hostel. "Kazhao is my father's name. Shumai Kazhao means: Kazhao's child, Shumai, we are the Sun Family."

Store manager Sumay Kacaw (Shu Mai Kazhao), in order to take care of her parents and give her daughter a happy and comfortable growing environment, she returned home with her family to run Tribal Queen Art Coffee (Photography _ Lin Yijun) from her mother's grocery store into an art style cafe.

When I came to Hualien, I went south along the 193 line, passing through the Mizuho Bridge at the junction of Mizuho and Yuli, with a panoramic view of the Xiukuluan River, the spring green tunnel and the rice fields on both sides. As soon as the post office, which stops regularly every day, left, I saw the sign of Dou Da saying "Tribal Queen". The bright orange color was bright all the way from the sign to the store.

The bright yellow in the store was the idea of brother Yousseff. Shumai explained that warm yellow is the color of mature rice ears, and it used to be an endless rice field in spring. "A lot of people here grow rice and feel comfortable watching it from an early age." Both she and her brother believe that since they have gone home to open a shop, the shop should be "the more on the ground, the better" from its appearance, furnishings and ingredients.

From the first floor to the third floor, the stairwell and balcony are all Yousseff's paintings or other works of art. From the paintings, you can feel full of vitality and enthusiasm. "Life in the tribe is my brother's inspiration." Shu Mai explains that his elder brother Youssef uses a lot of red, black, and white colors commonly used by the Ami people to draw the appearance of the Ami family and tribe by means of Western painting, and the appearance of the woman in the work is modeled by Shumai.

The tribal queen art cafe and hostel run by Shumai, his brother Youssef and his sister Lafaai contain the creation of Yossef, a famous Ami artist, and all the creative inspiration of Youssef. From the process of growing up, aboriginal culture and family (photography _ Lin Yijun) returned to their hometown where they loved to eat fish and wild vegetables to relive their carefree life in the past.

Shu Mai says that Matailin is the transliteration of Matadim, which originally means a kind of poison ivy. "Ami people not only like to eat wild vegetables, but also turn into cats when they see fish." She explained that in the past, our ancestors would use the juice of poison ivy to make the fish in the stream temporarily unconscious, and then catch the big fish and eat them, while the small ones would stay in the stream.

Shu Mai lived in the Matailin tribe when he was a child. He left home and went north at the age of 15. He lived in Taipei for 25 years and gave birth to his daughter Nikar. In order for Nikar to grow up carefree, his parents were old at this time, so Shu Mai decided to go back to Hualien and discuss with his family and transform his hometown into a tribal queen art cafe.

The name of the cafe "Tribal Queen" was inspired by her mother. "the Amis used to be matrilineal society, and every mother had a high status at home. In the past, boys' married'to girls'."

The tribal queen art cafe and hostel run by Shumai and Lafaai, the lookout view on the third floor balcony (photo _ Lin Yijun) was a princess before marriage, and every Ami mother was the queen of the tribe.

Shu Mai's grandfather used to be the leader of the Matailin tribe. he reigned for more than 40 years and had six men and six women. Shumai's mother ranked 11th. "my mother has been a carefree princess since she was a child, but she still remembers that she is a princess when she is old." While Shu Mai was talking, his mother happened to bring back a plant from the orchard and excitedly brought it to Shumai.

Shu Mai took the plants from his mother's hands and looked for glass bottled water and flower arrangement. "Mom and Dad are old. Now they go to the orchard on the mountain at home to take care of the fruits and vegetables, and bring bananas, peach leaves and other plants back to the store from the mountain." She added in a whisper: "but she takes a lot every time. I want to find a way to put it beautifully in the store. Her mother will be very happy to hear the guests praise her for her good planting."

Store manager Sumay Kacaw (Shu Mai Kazhao) and his mother (the tribal queen herself), her mother will go to the orchard with her father every morning to grow vegetables, pick vegetables, pick flowers or go home with fruit (photo _ Lin Yijun) from appearance, furnishings to ingredients, "the more on the ground, the better."

The cafe offers light snacks, including Fairtrade coffee and grapefruit tea from Hualien Wuhe, while refreshments are made by Shumai. When she visited that day, her purple sweet potato pie had just been demoulded. "this is ethnic from the tribe. It looks like blueberry pie!" Shu Mai said with a smile that the pie with a little sweet potato fiber tastes dense and has a slight sweet potato flavor.

There is a wooden platform in front of the shop full of plants. "this is our vegetable area!" Shu Mai says that there are a lot of people growing vegetables nearby, and the whole family thinks that since they have opened a cafe, they can also provide neighbors and tribal people as sales points. She picked up the tomatoes from the bamboo basket on the table. "the one who most often comes to deliver food is a tribal grandmother who planted it, and we all nicknamed it 'Tire Tomato'."

Not only the vegetables outside the store, but also rice naturally cultivated by tribal people are sold in the store. Visitors to the coffee shop are mainly tourists from other counties and cities. When asked about Shu Mai's selling vegetables, she smiled and said, "if there are more guests during the holidays, more people will buy them back. We usually cook and eat the food that is not sold out!" She revealed that she also plans to go up the mountain to grow vegetables with her parents and use some of the fruits and vegetables grown at home in the store.