Indigenous hunting and foraging cultures have often been approached through lenses such as social organization, knowledge systems, or power distribution. While these frameworks can highlight the decolonial significance of Indigenous natural sovereignty, they are sometimes critiqued for presenting static structural functions and implicitly reinforcing gender divisions. As a result, it is difficult to recognize hunting and foraging as living aesthetic practices entangled with multispecies relationships, landscapes, and spiritual realms.

Drawing on my repeated visits since 2012 to hanuban (mountain trails/hunting grounds) with Bunun partners in Southern Taiwan’s Central Highlands, this study employs participatory observation and reflexive methods. It explores how lutbu and is-ang (embodied mind-body practices) manifest multiple sensory and psychological experiences within the forest—such as perceptions of time, sound and language, smell, bodily sensations, fear and confidence, and sacredness.

By connecting participants’ lived experiences across generations and situating them within historical contexts, this paper examines whether subjective, sensory experiences can serve as an epistemological entry point into Indigenous knowledge systems. It further proposes an environment-centered epistemology guided by humans, attuned to the senses, and oriented toward all beings, thereby highlighting the ethical and sustainable dimensions of Indigenous ecological knowledge and contributing to ongoing discussions on methodological transformations in contemporary geography