The Ammatoa: People Inside the Frontier

January 1, 2007-January 1, 2007
Location: Asia Collection

Photographs by Sapril Akhmacy

In the South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia there is a village called Tana Toa. At the center of the village is a gate that marks the boundry between two worlds. Tana Lohea is the outside world, and Tana Kekea is where the Ammatoa people live surrounded by dense green forest and their own distinct culture.

They always wear black as part of their religion, Patuntung. They believe God watches them from the sacred forest, giving them messages called pakpasang. The messages passed through the generations are called pasang. Together, the pakpasang and pasang give direction to the Ammatoa, define their relationship to the creator, and teach them that they live at once in the material world and in the spiritual. This exhibition shows several images of the Ammatoa People related to their daily life activies, ritual ceremonies, portraits, and their landscape environment.