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n a bid to preserve local culture and traditional hunting practices, Mentawai Islands, a regency in West Sumatra, is set to host the “Mentawai Traditional Archery Festival” this week.

The first of such festivals is scheduled to be held in Muntei on Siberut Island from July 26 to 28, during which some 100 local participants will showcase their skills with traditional hunting tools.

For generations, hand-crafted bows and poison-tipped arrows have been used to hunt boars, monkeys and other animals by the adult males of the indigenous Mentawai tribes inhabiting Siberut Island.

However, the use of traditional Mentawai hunting tools has seen a decline in popularity.

People above 17 years of age coming from outside Mentawai, including tourists, will be welcomed to take part in the festival, which is being organized by the Mentawai Islands Tourism, Youth and Sport Agency.

“They can rent the arrows and bows from local people, and if they want they can also hire a coach,” said the agency’s marketing division head Aban Barnabas Sikaraja, who is also chairman of the organizing committee.

Teaming up with the local branch of the National Sport Committee (KONI), the organizers are also offering a total prize money of Rp 30 million (US$2,250) for participants of the archery competition at the festival, which mixes traditional culture and sports.

The festival will also demonstrate how shaman, locally known as sikerei, prepare plant extracts to make the deadly poison before it is applied to the arrowheads.

At the event, the shamans will perform Turuk Laggai, a Mentawai traditional dance; and, just like the other participants, they will also showcase their archery skills.

Mentawai tourism agency head Desti Seminora expressed optimism that the event would help promote traditional hunting as a tourist attraction in the regency, which is already famous for its world class surfing spots.

“We are afraid that Mentawai traditional archery will eventually vanish because many people in the regency have switched to using modern tools,” Desti said.

The archery festival is part of a series of events held in support of a bigger Mentawai tourism celebration called the “Festival Pesona Mentawai,” or the Beautiful Mentawai Festival, to be held in October this year.

Mentawai people are famous for their traditional tattoos and traditional herbal medicines.

The Anggau Festival, another event promoting local delicacies, like sago and taro, is also set to be held in the near future.