About The Author
Listening, learning, and living alongside the Mentawai of Siberut Island
I am Toine IJsseldijk, a Dutch photographer who has lived and worked in Indonesia for many years.
Since 1990, I have lived in close relationship with a Mentawai family in the interior rainforest of Siberut Island. Over time, I was adopted into their uma and am considered a full member of the family.
Relationship before work
My involvement with the Mentawai did not begin as a project.
I arrived as a young traveler and stayed because of relationships that grew into family ties. Over the years, daily life, shared work, ceremonies, illness, loss, and celebration shaped a form of belonging that goes far beyond observation.
I am not a shaman, a cultural authority, or a spokesperson for the Mentawai. Knowledge shared on this website comes from lived experience, long-term listening, and what I have been allowed to witness and learn — not from ownership or representation.
The Mentawai speak for themselves. My role is to listen, document, and help create space for continuity where possible.
Photography & documentation
Photography has been part of my life for decades, but on Siberut it has always come second to relationship. Images on this website were made slowly, often over many years, and only in contexts where presence was welcomed.
Many ceremonies documented here are rarely seen by outsiders. Their inclusion reflects trust built over time, and the ongoing consent of those involved.
This website exists as a shared archive — for the Mentawai themselves, for younger generations growing up between worlds, and for those who seek to understand Indigenous life beyond simplified images.
It is not intended as nostalgia, nor as academic anthropology, but as a living record of a culture still practiced today.
A Living Presence
I continue to spend time and work on Siberut Island, moving between forest settlements and coastal towns, and between Mentawai and Indonesian worlds.
What follows on this website is shared with care, gratitude, and responsibility.
Toine IJsseldijk