53 minutes Colour
Director: John Sheppard
Anthropologist: Reimar Schefold
The Sakuddei are a small and ethnically separate community living on the island of Siberut off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Their distinctive way of life and elaborate religious ceremonies, centred on the umah (ceremonial house) are under threat from the Indonesian government which wishes to `civilise' the Sakuddei. These people are also threatened by a timber company from the Philippines which has been granted a logging concession in the Sakuddei's territory.
The first part of the film contains strikingly photographed scenes of ritual life in the umah, while in the second part there is an interview with a representative of the government who wants to send the Sakuddei children to school in a government village on the coast. The adults fear that the children will lose touch with their own customs and identity if placed in such an institution. Their concern forms part of a moving and dramatic film which explores the contrast between the Sakuddei's way of life and the various pressures of modern Indonesian society on them: Islam, money, police, administrators and the lumber companies.
H. Nooy-Palm, 1968. `The Culture of the Pagai-Islands and Sipora, Mentawei'. Tropical Man, 1, pp. 152241.
R. Schefold, 1973. `Religious Conceptions on Siberut, Mentawai'. Sumatra Research Bulletin (Berita Kajian Sumatera), II, 2, pp. 1224.
R. Schefold, 1976. `Religious Involution: Internal Change, and its Consequences, in the Taboo-System of the Mentawaians'. Tropical Man, 5, pp. 4681.
R. Schefold, 1980. `The Sacrifices of the Sakuddei (Mentawai Archipelago, Western Indonesia): An Attempt at Classification'. In R. Schefold, J.W. Schoorl and J. Tennekes (eds.), Man, Meaning and History: Essays in Honour of Prof. Dr. H.G. Schulte Nordholt. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.
B.E. Ward, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 8, pp. 1011.