Indonesia is home to over 1,100 ethnic groups across its territory. Because travel is also about encounters, we invite you to journey to meet four isolated ethnic minorities with unexpected ancestral traditions. From Papua to Borneo, passing through Sumatra, we take you to discover the daily lives of indigenous tribes with whom you will experience moments you won't soon forget!

Meeting the Dani in Papua

A true land of adventure with wild spaces and pristine nature, Papua is the ideal place to journey to meet Indonesian indigenous peoples with ancestral and tribal traditions. Generally called Papuans, several ethnic groups can be distinguished such as the Dani, Lani, Asmat or Korowai. Here, we invite you to discover one of them: the Dani. Living on the highlands of Papua, you can meet the Dani around the famous Baliem Valley. Through long hikes, you can discover the most remote Dani villages, who live mainly from agriculture. By staying with the Dani, you will be able to participate in one of their celebrations: the pig festival and the war dance.

Meeting the Korowai in Papua

Still in Papua, we invite you this time to journey to meet the Korowai, who live on the lowlands in the southern part of Indonesian New Guinea. The Korowai are peoples discovered only 40 years ago. Living in small groups, they are nomads who move every three years or so and are renowned for building their houses in trees at an average height of 10 to 15 meters. During an immersion with this people from another era, you will be able to understand their way of life by learning their own survival techniques. House and shelter construction, making hunting and fishing tools, gathering and making sago flour… These are just some of the activities awaiting you during a survival stay with the Korowai!

Meeting the Mentawai at Siberut

Heading to the large island of Siberut in the Mentawai Archipelago (west of Sumatra) to discover those nicknamed the flower-men. The Mentawai are an animist people who worship nature by nourishing themselves from the riches of the forest and healing themselves through shamanic rituals. They are recognizable by the red hibiscus flowers they wear in their hair and by their bodies covered with tattoos which, according to their beliefs, help preserve their soul and prevent it from detaching from the body. The Mentawai live in collective houses on stilts called 'uma' and live mainly from hunting and fishing. Meeting them is treating yourself to a privileged moment in the heart of nature where you can learn to make traditional loincloths called 'kabit', prepare poison for their poisoned arrows, fish in rivers with the women of the clan… The luckiest may even witness shamanic ceremonies!

Journey to meet the Mentawai with our Sumatra circuit: immersion with the flower-men of Siberut

Meeting the Dayak in Borneo

It is now on the island of Borneo that we invite you to journey to meet the Dayak. An iconic indigenous people of Borneo, the Dayak are one of Indonesia's most well-known ethnicities. For reference, the word 'Dayak' is a term invented by the Dutch to designate all non-Muslim and indigenous people living inland in Borneo. Among them, we find the Iban or 'Sea Dayaks' as well as the Bidayuh or 'Land Dayaks'. These native tribes originating from Indonesian Kalimantan are renowned for being former headhunting warriors. Although they have been converted to Christianity, these peoples still practice their animist beliefs by celebrating harvests, the dead, the hornbill, and by practicing traditional war dances…

Florine Dergelet