Modern world tugs at tribe’s ancient Indonesian customs
The older man wore just a loincloth, revealing taut muscles and leathery skin from decades of living deep in the rainforest.
The man, Teu Kapik Sibajak, went off through the forest to chop down a sago palm tree. The tree’s leaves provide the roof for his wooden long house; its starchy insides can be cooked and eaten, or fed to the household’s pigs, ducks and chickens.
Kapik and his wife, Teu Kapik Sikalabai, are among the last of the Mentawai people living traditional lives on the remote island of Siberut in Indonesia.
They, and others like them, have for decades resisted Indonesian government policies that pressured the forest-bound indigenous groups to abandon their old customs, accept a government-approved religion and move to government villages. That shift has led to major disjunction between gen- erations of Mentawai.
The Mentawai tribe, which numbers around 60,000, is a rare Indonesian culture that was not influenced by Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim currents. Instead, their traditions and beliefs strongly resemble those of the original Austronesian settlers who came to this vast archipelago from Taiwan around 4,000 years ago. If the tribe’s culture disappears, one of the last links to Indonesia’s early human inhabitants will go with it.
Petrus Sekaliou, 42, the Kapiks’ son, wears Western clothing and can communicate in fluent bahasa Indonesian, the national language.
He lives in Mongorut village on the outskirts of the forest. He farms and does odd jobs.
Since arriving on the island of Siberut around 2,000 years ago, the Mentawai people had limited exposure to the outside world. It wasn’t until Indonesia gained its independence in 1949, and the new country’s leaders sought to turn this archipelago into a nation with a common language and culture, that the Mentawai culture began to be fundamentally transformed.
By law, all citizens had to accept one of Indonesia’s officially recognized religions.
The Kapiks fled deeper into the forest to avoid the state’s incursions.
Only after Western tourists began paying visits to the forest people in the 1990s did the local government recognize the commercial advantages of allowing traditional Mentawai to live freely. By that point, an entire generation had been raised without the touchstones of traditional life.
Attempts to revive Mentawai tradition have begun, however haltingly.
Still, many Mentawai are reeling from what they have lost over decades of government oppression.
“My kids don’t know about their culture whatsoever,” Sekaliou said.