Your donation will help Native Planet continue to build new umas, the hearts of Mentawai society, for traditional Mentawai clans wishing to return to their ancestral land and preserve their culture.
Our First Uma
Construction Project
Photos by Salim Samuntei, September 2003 to Summer 2004
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On-site, Project Manager Salim
Samuntei
is supervising the construction process.
The team of skilled Mentawai carpenters Native Planet brought from a nearby village to cut boards and beams framed the structure in only six weeks. Traditional methods would have taken a year.
Contributions have allowed us to begin the wooden floor as well as the long-lasting thatch roof. Native Planet needs to finish the floor, walls and benches, so the
uma, the heart of this indigenous community, can be completed quickly. When it is finished, this shaman’s clan can return to live in the pristine rainforest of the ancestors and honor the old ways.
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