In Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, youths blend ancestral and world faiths to protect forests

In Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, youths blend ancestral and world faiths to protect forests

Off the western coast of Sumatra, the Mentawai Islands rise from the Indian Ocean in a patchwork of emerald forests and winding rivers. The canopy shelters endemic macaques and gibbons, hornbills and orchids, while coastal villages still echo with rituals that tie people to the land and sea. Among the younger generation of Indigenous Mentawai, an ancestral belief system known as Arat Sabulungan continues to influence how forests are understood a…