Mentawai Jungle Tribe Siberut

Meet the Mentawai Tribes. Take a trip into the wild & immerse yourself in ancestral practices and traditions. Discover heavy spiritual semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer people who have chose to continue living their traditional tribal lifestyle.

Culture

The Mentawai lifestyle should be of interest to almost every society for it contains elements of hunter-gatherer, animal husbandry and subsistence level settled farming traditions; all of these forms of existence are at the roots of every contemporary scociety. However traditional Mentawai communities can not be reduced only to a lens on the yesterday of our modern technological societies, they are also an example a sophisticated socialization that balances subsistence with a unique pattern of family well being, in essence a window on a potential tomorrow. Dr Philip Cook, University of Victoria, BC. Canada

If you can move beyond the perception of the Mentawai as only «primitive», then you may be able to appreciate a culture whose veneration of the child, centrality of healing, and the emphasis placed on a rich web of connectivity linking the individual to his or her clan and community, ancestors of the past and future, as well as the spirit of creation manifest in the natural cycle of daily life in the rainforest, makes our own lives seem narrow & disconnected. Dr Philip Cook, University of Victoria, BC. Canada

The Mentawai People have lived for centuries on their unique Archipelago of Islands, now reduced to a few settlements on the southern tip of Siberut Island, they still have a strong traditional lifestyle though their future is threatened by external forces such as logging, introduced diseases, and large scale settlement of Non Mentawai due to economic and population pressures in other parts of Indonesia.

Is giving money a mere means of easing our western conscience? Money is an inevitable part of modern life, even for these tribes. We give them money for experiencing their life, but our aim is to help them use this money to preserve their culture. Have some chats with your guide along that week, as you will be staying in his family & friends' houses, he will help you to understand the situation more deeply. He is the son of tribes' people.

Mentawai, one of Indonesian islands, with its millions of beauty, inhabited by one ethnic people, Mentawai, having tattoes all over their bodies. Its exotism and the existence of endangered primate, called pigtail monkey, dwarf siamang and beruk that live wildly and freely side to side with the people in a traditional house inhabited by group of people. Prepare yourself for for the unlimited experiences. You will definitely enjoy!

Things needed to be prepared: daypack and backpack, shoes and sandal for tracking, personal medicine, camera or handycam for documentation, flashlight and back up battery.

Note: The schedule for speed boat can sometimes be changed without prior notice depending on the weather.