Text and interview by Alex Arthur
97
FIG. 3 (left): Bird, siaggau.
South Siberut. 1967.
Wood, pigment.
Private collection.
Wooden birds are made at various
ritual occasions to entice ancestors
and benevolent spirits, as well
as the souls of the community
members, their livestock, and game
animals. This idea has led to their
Mentawaian characterization as
“toys for the souls” (umat simagere).
They hang from beams in the
longhouse, or uma.
FIGS. 1a and b (facing
page and below): Sacred
carving, jaraik. Samalaiming,
Madobat, central Siberut.
C. 1940.
Collected in 1968.
Wood, skull, decorated with red and
black pigment, pieces of mother of
pearl, vegetal fi bers, chicken feathers.
57 x 60 cm.
Private collection.
FIG. 2 (above): Windmill,
or totopoi, in a tree on the
upper reaches of the Saibi
River with a man jeering at
rival neighbors. 1983.
In the 1950s, while Sukarno, the fi rst
president of Indonesia, claimed that the tribal traditions
were “feudal remnants of the past” that
had to be eradicated, a young anthropologist
named Reimar Schefold decided to go and live
with the people who had for centuries inhabited
the Mentawai Islands, an archipelago about 150
kilometers off the western coast of Sumatra. Few
people had really taken an interest in them before.
Siberut Island, which was Schefold’s destination,
is as large as Bali but sparsely populated, diseaseridden,
and inhospitable. The Mentawai people
were known for defending themselves against
outside infl uences and they refuse most visitors.
Schefold, then twenty-nine years old, set out
with eighteen boxes of provisions and stayed
with them for two years in isolation, fi nally gaining
their trust. He told them stories about his
ancestors and they related their stories as well.
He began to collect their artworks so he could
better reveal their culture to the “outside” world.
Many were given to him as gifts, and he was able
to form a unique collection of Mentawai art and
cultural objects.
Thanks to a recent donation to the Museum
Volkenkunde at Leiden University, where Schefold
is professor emeritus of cultural anthropology
and sociology of Indonesia, a large portion
of this exceptional collection can be viewed there
starting October 20, 2017. Visitors will fi nd ancient
traditions alongside contemporary expressions
of one of earth’s last thriving indigenous
cultures. The religious beliefs of the Mentawai
continue to shape their thoughts and actions. Being
animist, they believe that all things in nature,
Life and Art on the
Mentawai Islands
Toys for the Souls