Sumba – A Marapu Funeral

In 2006, while travelling through the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia, I was invited by a family to attend a funeral. Both parents had died within a week of each other. I accepted, not fully knowing what I was about to witness. Marapu is an ancestral belief system, ancient and deeply embedded in Sumbanese life. For its followers, death is not an ending but a passage – a transition into the world of ancestors that must be honoured through ceremony. During my stay, I watched and photographed rituals of animal sacrifice, singing, dance and burial. Life, death and the spiritual world are moving together without separation.

I was early in my journey as a photographer, working with my first digital camera. The access the family gave me was something I have never forgotten. Due to their graphic content, only a small and carefully considered selection is shown here.