Mentawai Island

Mentawai Island

This letter is in response to Imran Rusli's article Mentawai now West Sumatra's main tourist attraction (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 22, 1995). We are both non-Indonesians who have spent considerable time in Siberut Island, in the capacity as tour guide and anthropologist, and as such feel that our views and experiences may be of some interest.

Nazif Lubuk seems confused that tourists "fall head over heels for natural, traditional objects." However, our experience has been the Mentawai philosophy and way of life. For thousands of years the Mentawai have lived in harmony with the forest, treating it with love and respect. Taking only what is needed, they share openly.

For many Westerners, coming from industrialized, urbanized nations, which have lost an intimate relationship with nature (treating it only as a commodity), witnessing and, to a certain extent participating in, the Mentawai way of life is an emotive and deeply moving experience.

Rather than being perceived as merely "exotic" and "primitive", the Mentawai people are seen by many visitors as living examples of successful and sustainable "environmental management".

As such they are a potential role model and source of inspiration for the developing world, rather than simply an exotic spectacle.

Nazif states concern that the Mentawai "Don't lag too far behind their brethren from the coast". The fact is, however, that many Mentawai have already visited the Sumatra mainland. Fully conscious of the possibilities open to them, the majority choose to return to the forest and their traditional way of life.

Perhaps, instead of focusing on teaching the Mentawai "What is right and what is not", more attention could be paid as to how tourists and other visitors could possibly learn from the "immaterial" wealth of their culture.

Tourism is fine, the Mentawai enjoy having visitors; however there is a danger that if this tourism is not strictly regulated (in accordance with the Mentawai's wishes) the "main attraction" of Siberut, the Mentawai's integrated way of life, could be unnecessarily disrupted.

Some possible suggestions are: that tourists receive preliminary information on Mentawai culture and language so that they are sensitive to indigenous ways. Secondly, that all guides are registered, have spent at least several years living on Siberut, have an adequate grasp of local language, and are accepted and liked by the people from which they make a living. Such simple regulations could go a long way towards ensuring that both visitors and Mentawais themselves benefit from tourism.

IAN WILSON

and ANDINA VAN BINSBERGEN

Yogyakarta