Saujana Sumpu

Sumpu is a contemporary Minangkabau village at the vicinity of Lake Singkarak in West Sumatera, Indonesia. Since decades ago, the people have migrated from the village and became a part of Indonesia’s urban population leaving it crumbles through the passage of time. Rural migration has reached a whole new level in Minangkabau culture, abandoning its primordial roots in the process.

Sumpu, through its Saujana (cultural landscape), has somehow managed to immortalize this phenomenon. Sumpu is easily perceived as a story of a forgotten fertile village that has lost its way and now merely stands as a remnant of its glorious past. A heartbreaking story of a land that for hundreds of years has given birth to tough, hardworking migrants. It is the story of the slow decline of a cultural heritageof the Minangkabau as the only matrilineal society in Indonesia. (2013 - 2018)

Text Editor : Adrian Murphy