The Mentawai tribe of Siberut, the largest of the Mentawai islands have maintained much of their traditional way of life despite great pressure from the modern world.
That pressure is now set to increase as the Indonesian government plans to turn 20,000 hectares of their land in to palm oil plantations, this will have devastating consequences on the Mentawai's traditional way of life. The Indonesian government has already relocated many of the Mentawai in to government villages. But some are refusing to leave their traditional lives for the uncertain future in the villages, preferring the now uncertain future in the forest that has been their home for thousands of years.