Mentawai Expeditions & Cultural Journeys on Siberut
Immersive Journeys to the Heart, Souls & Spirits of the Forest
With Toine IJsseldijk
I design and lead a limited number of expeditions and cultural journeys into the interior of Siberut, home to the Indigenous Mentawai people. Built on decades of long-term relationships, these Mentawai expeditions offer rare access for travelers, photographers, and filmmakers seeking meaningful engagement rather than surface-level travel.
Whether joining a custom Mentawai tour or a specialized photography or filmmaking expedition, each journey is guided by deep cultural knowledge, patience, and ethical practice, allowing for genuine immersion into one of Indonesia’s oldest living cultures.
Siberut Island & the indigenous Mentawai people
Siberut is the largest of the Mentawai Islands, located some 150 kilometers west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Much of the island remains covered in dense rainforest, protected by its remoteness and shaped by generations of Indigenous guardianship.
The Mentawai are among the oldest cultures in Indonesia. For centuries they lived in relative isolation, developing a way of life closely attuned to the rhythms of the forest. Many communities still practice a semi-nomadic lifestyle based on hunting, gathering, fishing, and small-scale agriculture.
Mentawai society is deeply animistic. The forest, rivers, animals, ancestors, and humans are understood as part of a single living system. All things possess spiritual essence, and balance is central to well-being. When this balance is disturbed, misfortune may follow — illness, failed hunts, or death — requiring ritual attention to restore harmony.
Mentawai Travel: Visiting the Interior of Siberut
Visiting the Mentawai is not sightseeing. It is an immersion into a living cultural landscape where daily life, ritual, and environment remain inseparable.
Travel moves slowly. From the coast, the journey continues by pickup and canoe, following rivers deep into Siberut’s protected interior. Here, traditional uma — large communal longhouses — are scattered along forested valleys, each home to extended families.
Guests stay in an uma, sharing daily routines and, when appropriate, witnessing ceremonies and rituals. Life unfolds at the pace of the forest: preparing food, fishing, hunting, storytelling, and observing ritual obligations tied to health, balance, and the spirit world.
Journey Upriver into the Mentawai Rainforest
Reaching the interior of Siberut is part of the experience. Travel involves river crossings, forest paths, and canoe journeys upriver, often lasting several hours. This gradual transition creates distance from the outside world and allows time to adjust to a different rhythm of life.
There is no fixed itinerary. Days are shaped by weather, river levels, ceremonies, and the needs of the community. Flexibility and patience are essential — and rewarded.
Living in an Uma: Staying with Mentawai Families
Accommodation is in a traditional uma, the community longhouse central to Mentawai life. Sleeping arrangements are simple and communal, with mosquito nets provided. Guests share the same space as the host family, offering rare insight into Mentawai domestic life and everyday rhythms.
For those who prefer a greater degree of privacy, two small separate huts are available at my family’s uma. These provide a quieter sleeping option while remaining close to daily life and activity.
Bathing usually takes place in the river, but at my family’s uma there is also a proper bathroom with a Western-style toilet. Electricity, when available, is limited to small solar installations. Comfort is defined not by amenities, but by presence, intimacy, and hospitality.
Meals & Food in the Interior of Siberut
Food supplies in the interior of Siberut are extremely limited. Outside the small social villages, there are only a few basic shops selling household necessities; fresh vegetables, fruit, and meat are generally unavailable. Traditional Mentawai families depend largely on what the rainforest, their small gardens, and limited livestock can provide.
For each journey, essential food supplies are brought from Muara Siberut, including rice, noodles, vegetables, eggs, spices, and canned items such as fish and corned beef. Meals in the interior are simple but sufficient, and are often complemented with traditional Mentawai food, forest produce, and seasonal local fruit and vegetables when available.
Most meals are shared with the host family. Eating together is an important part of daily Mentawai life and hospitality, reinforcing social bonds and offering visitors a deeper understanding of everyday life in the interior of Siberut.
Belief, Ritual, and EVeryday Mentawai Life
Mentawai life is structured around maintaining balance between the visible and invisible worlds. Illness, misfortune, or conflict are understood not as random events, but as signs of imbalance requiring ritual attention.
Depending on timing and circumstance, guests may witness ceremonies related to healing, hunting, house construction, or life-cycle events. Participation is always guided and respectful, and some rituals remain private.
Nothing is staged. What guests witness unfolds as part of real life.
Your Mentawai Hosts on Siberut
Your primary hosts are Teteu and her family. Together with her children and grandchildren, they form one of the core households you will live with.
Her two sons, Aman Manja and Aman Sasali, are among the youngest still-traditional kerei (shamans) on Siberut. The entire family plays an active role in hosting, teaching, and sharing daily life, ensuring that visitors gain genuine understanding rather than surface impressions.
Social Responsibilty & Ethical Mentawai Travel
These journeys are built on reciprocity. Twenty percent of all trip payments is returned directly to Mentawai communities.
Funds support education, healthcare, maintenance and construction of uma, small solar installations, canoe motors, and other needs identified together with the families involved.
Activities during Mentawai Expeditions
Activities may include fishing, hunting expeditions, forest walks, food preparation, craft-making, and extended time observing and participating in daily life. There is also ample space for quiet observation, conversation, and rest.
Physical demands are moderate but conditions are humid and remote. A reasonable level of fitness and adaptability is required.
Tour Dates & Custom Mentawai Journeys
A small number of scheduled departures are offered each year. Custom dates can be arranged upon request.
Private journeys are guaranteed with a minimum of three confirmed participants and may be shared with a few others if desired. Family travel with children is possible, including during school holidays, provided expectations align with the realities of life in the interior.
DATES | DESTINATION | TOUR STATUS |
|---|---|---|
Late February 2026 | Siberut: 7 or 10 days – Photography Trip | Tentative |
April 2026 – Dates flexible | Siberut: 7 or 10 days | Tentative |
June / July 2026 | Siberut: 7 to 10 days – Large Ceremony | Confirmed |
traditional ceremony: the initiation of a new Uma
June / July 2026 – final dates not yet known
Some time in the middle of this year a major ceremony will take place in Butui, to bless and initiate a new large traditional uma. The Uma is owned by Aman Naru, a great shaman who I have known since 1990. Aman Naru is the son of the brother of my Mentawai mother, so one of my Mentawai nephews.
These kind of ceremonies don’t happen very often anymore, as nowadays not many Mentawai are interested or able to build such a large house. The ceremony will last for several days and will be attended by quite a number of shamans and their families.
A lot of traditional rituals and ceremonies will take place over a couple of days. Many pigs and chickens will be sacrificed, shamans will dance at night, sing shaman songs and a traditional hunt will take place, just to name a few of the events. Everybody will be dressed up at their finest, with traditional ceremonial attire and adornments. A truly spectacular event!
Aman Naru and his wife Bai Naru
TOUR DETAILS:
The tour will be around 7-10 days and the cost will depend on the number of people joining. We will make a major donation to Aman Naru, in the form of pigs that will be sacrificed during the ceremony.
We will be able to really immerse ourselves in Mentawai culture and witness this unique ceremony from up-close and amongst the most friendly people you’ll ever meet!
Custom Mentawai Tours for Independent Travelers
For over 30 years, I have designed and led a limited number of custom journeys for travelers who seek depth rather than comfort — whether traveling solo, with family, among close friends, or as small groups working with serious international tour operators.
Shaped by long-term relationships and deep field experience, these journeys offer rare access to Mentawai life while remaining respectful, ethical, and carefully paced.
Below are a few images from these journeys.
Mentawai Expeditions for Photographers & Filmmakers
I also personally design and lead highly specialized Mentawai expeditions for serious photographers and professional filmmakers. Built on decades of trust-based relationships with Mentawai communities on Siberut, these journeys provide access and understanding that cannot be arranged independently or replicated elsewhere.
They allow for the ethical documentation of Mentawai life, including its most intimate and sacred dimensions, guided by cultural understanding and long-term presence.
Below are a selection of behind-the-scenes images from professional filmmakers working in the field.
Cost & Inclusions
7 Days & 6 Nights on Siberut Island:
USD 1,240 / person
10 Days & 9 Nights on Siberut Island:
USD 1,390 / person
Price above is for minimum 3 people.
For a private trip for 1 or 2 people, or shorter or longer trip, please contact me.
Included:
Fast-boat from Padang to Siberut and back to Padang.
All local transport: pick-up car and motorized canoe up- and down-river.
All meals on Siberut Island.
Overnight at traditional Uma (or huts) on day 2 until 6.
Porters to help carry luggage when and where necessary.
Local tips and gifts for the Mentawai.
An authentic traditional ceremony with music and dance by the shamans.
Donation of a pig for the ceremony.
All activities: traditional fishing, (overnight) hunting, loin cloth making, Mentawai food gathering and preparation, traditional medicine making, etc.
Myself as your personal guide.
Excluded:
Flights to and from Padang. We can help you make (domestic) flight arrangements if you want.
Transport and hotel in Padang. We usually sleep near the harbor; cost for a basic but decent room is about IDR 300,000 / night. We can also organize more luxury accommodation (4 star hotel); cost is around IDR 750,000 / night.
Other personal expenses.
For trips with a major ceremony there will be an additional cost to contribute to the ceremony.
Typical Itinerary
Traveling to this remote part of the world is an adventurous journey and we may need to adjust along the way, but this is the planned itinerary:
Day 1:
Arrive in Padang, West Sumatra and transfer to your hotel
Afternoon: Time for last minute shopping, followed by a traditional Padang food dinner.
Evening: program briefing.
Overnight at a hotel in Padang.
Day 2:
Early morning check-out from your hotel and transfer to the harbor, to catch the 7am fast-boat to Siberut Island.
You travel to Muara Siberut, in the south of the island, where you will arrive either around 10.40 am (on Thursdays) or 13.45 pm (on Tuesdays and Saturdays).
To save travel time by canoe and if road conditions allow you will drive by open pick-up car to the small village of Rogdok or Kulukubuk, which lies further up-river. This drive is around an hour.
From Rogdok or Kulukubuk you take motorized canoes and continue the journey upriver, to Ugai or Muara Butui. This canoe trip will take about 1-2 hours, depending on water levels.
From Ugai or Muara Butui you hike to the traditional village of Butui, which consists of a handful of traditional Uma spread out in the Butui river valley. Your destination is the last Uma upstream, which belongs to Aman Manja and Aman Sasali, two of the youngest remaining traditional Mentawai Shamans on the island. This will be your base for the next few days. The hike is about 1 – 1.5 hour, following partially the Butui river.
Late afternoon & evening: time to relax and get to know the family.
Overnight at the Uma in Butui.
Day 3:
Full day time for exploration: the house and surroundings, traditional food gathering and preparation, etc.
Evening: traditional songs by Mentawai shamans.
Overnight at the Uma in Butui.
Day 4:
Full day time for exploration.
Preparations for a traditional ceremony, including a pig sacrifice.
Evening: traditional ceremony with music and dance, a night you will not forget!
Overnight at the Uma in Butui.
Day 5:
Full day time for exploration: preparation for traditional hunting, including making of poison for the arrows.
Hunting with the shamans.
Overnight at the Uma in Butui, or a make-shift traditional hunting camp.
Day 6:
Visit to a nearby waterfall, together with the shamans.
Overnight at the Uma in Butui.
Day 7:
Full day time for exploration: preparation for traditional fishing.
Evening: traditional fishing with the Mentawai women.
Overnight at the Uma in Butui.
Day 8:
After (early) breakfast you hike to Muara Butui or Ugai and take the canoe back to Rogdok or Kulukubuk.
You then drive back to the harbour by pick-up, to catch the fast-boat back to Padang, either at 12.00 noon (on Thursdays) or 14.30 pm (on Tuesdays and Saturdays). You will arrive in Padang around 6.30 pm. If you are lucky you will see some dolphins accompanying the boat and enjoy a nice sunset from the roof-deck of the boat!
Upon arrival you drive direct to your hotel.
Dinner and overnight at your hotel in Padang.
Day 9:
Transfer to the airport.
Optional: extension to Bukittinggi and the Minangkabau highlands, to see the famous Pacu Jawi!
What to Bring
Light clothing for hiking. Most practical are fast-drying trousers with removable legs and a light t-shirt. We will get dirty and wet, no matter what. Some people prefer shorts, and that’s fine.
2 pair of change: shorts and (t-)shirts. Our hosts can wash your cloths.
A thin sweater: for on the fast boat (AC), and sometimes evenings.
Light hiking shoes with a good grip. Avoid open sandals or shoes.
Socks.
Rain poncho. Mostly for in the canoe if it happens to rain.
Towel.
Sun glasses.
Hat or cap, mostly against the sun while in the canoe.
Mosquito repellent.
Thin sleeping bag / liner or similar.
Slippers / sandals for short walks.
Toiletries.
Some cash money – no ATMs during your stay on Siberut.
Backpack (suitcases are not recommended).
Dry-bags are very practical.
Flash light. Head lights are ideal.
Your camera stuff.
Batteries! There is no electricity where you stay. It may sometimes be possible to recharge batteries in a nearby social village, but not guaranteed and this will take time.
A copy of your passport.
Travel insurance.
OPTIONAL:
- Aqua shoes or similar. Practical for short walks to and through the rivers and creeks. And the toilet… Less suitable for longer walks.
Minangkabau Highlands
Extend your stay in West Sumatra with a few days, and visit the Minangkabau Highlands! A fantastic destination offering spectacular scenery all around, as well as the unique Minangkabau culture.
We can help you with ideas and an itinerary, if you like.
Pacu Jawi – Traditional Bull Races of West Sumatra
And when you extend, note that on most Saturdays you can visit the traditional bull races, called Pacu Jawi.
Here some photos of this spectacular event.
Photos by Rodney Ee, CC by 2.0
About Me
My name is Toine IJsseldijk, though most people on Siberut call me Tom. I came to Indonesia more than 35 years ago as a young biologist fascinated by wildlife and traditional cultures. Over the decades I’ve travelled the archipelago endlessly — guiding expeditions, photographing nature and people, and eventually settling on a small plantation in the mountains of Bali.
How Siberut Changed My Life
In 1990 I travelled to Siberut for the first time. I thought I was visiting an isolated rainforest; instead, I met a family who changed my life.
Shaman Aman Patre, his wife Bai Patre, and their children welcomed me into their home. I lived with them, learned their language, followed them on hunts, helped in the gardens, and sat beside them during rituals I had never imagined existed. In time, they adopted me into their family — a bond of trust and affection that still continues today.
Because of this, I return to Siberut again and again, always as family, never as an outsider. Their uma remains one of the few places where traditional Mentawai life still flows almost unchanged.
Why Travel With Me
Because I am welcomed as family, those who come with me are welcomed the same way. This is not tourism. It is sitting by the fire, listening to stories, watching rituals from within the circle, and meeting people who live with remarkable dignity, humor, and resilience.
Through this website, I share the Mentawai who shaped my life — and invite you to experience their world with the same respect and wonder they have given me.
My Photography website: www.duniart.com
Where is Siberut?