An Irish influencer has come under fire for using a ‘cannibal tribe’ in Indonesia for a humiliating TikTok stunt.
The video was filmed in Papua, a province of eastern Indonesia that comprises the western half of the island of New Guinea.
In the footage, filmed by travel influencer Dara Tah, a group of tourists visit the tribe on a boat and offer them salt as a gift – a gesture that is swiftly rejected when one of the tribesmen gives the travellers a menacing look.
The video has already generated backlash, with some people imploring the influencer to leave the community alone.
Tah, who labelled the group a ‘cannibal tribe’, is a popular online personality determined to become ‘Ireland’s biggest YouTuber ever’.
He attempts dangerous stunts for the entertainment of his viewers, from working among sulfur miners at Indonesia’s Kawah Ijen volcano to spending 50 hours in an underground nuclear missile complex.
He has generated over 827,000 subscribers on YouTube and 721,000 followers on TikTok.
In the astonishing video from August, Tah and a team of tourists anxiously arrive at the jungle in the western half of the Island of New Guinea.
He is accompanied by fellow explorers on the small wooden boat as well as a local guide, Demi, who apparently had knowledge of the tribe.
As the vessel edged closer to the bank, a tribesman points a threatening bow and arrow at the visitors, causing them to immediately panic.
‘I think they’re pointing bows and arrows at us, bro,’ one tourist said nervously.
‘Seriously, this is terrifying,’ Tah said, with his arm raised in the air as if to wave ‘hello’ and signify peace. ‘Seriously, they are huge bows,’ he added, clearly frightened.
In an attempt to ‘make an offering’ so that their group was welcomed, Tah took out packets of salt to gift to the tribesmen.
He waved the packets into the air before pouring some salt into his hand.
But when one of the tribe’s leaders – accompanied by a dog – tried some of the salt, he spat it out in dissatisfaction.
‘Oh God, he doesn’t look like he likes that,’ Tah said. ‘Alright guys, let’s move back maybe.’
The leader, panic-stricken, said: ‘We have to move. We’re not welcome. It’s really dangerous.’
As their boat finally edged away from the bank, the TikToker said: ‘I’m not going to lie, that was absolutely terrifying.’
‘I’m sorry I took you here,’ Demi said.
‘Will try again tomorrow. Wish us luck,’ Tah wrote in the caption to the post that has been liked over half a million times.
In the comments to the TikTok, many people have expressed anger towards the influencer for approaching and filming the tribe.
‘Leave them alone and they are not cannibals!’ one person wrote.
‘They are not cannibal, they are just people living a peaceful life,’ another added.
‘But why are you there in the first place?’ a third comment said.
Papua is a province of eastern Indonesia and comprises the western half of the island of New Guinea. Its capital city is Jayapura and is distinct from the independent country of Papua New Guinea.
It is not known what exact tribe the group was visiting.
It is understood that Papua is home to over 250 diverse tribes, all with their own unique languages and culture.
In 2018, an American missionary was shot dead by a protected tribe when he arrived on their remote Indian island.
John Allen Chau, 27, believed he had been ‘called’ to convert the tribe – and paid local fishermen to help him get to North Sentinel Island, one of the world’s most isolated regions in India’s Andaman islands.
He took a boat ride with the fishermen before venturing alone in a canoe to where the indigenous people live cut off completely from the outside world, authorities said.
But as soon as he set foot on the island, he found himself facing a flurry of arrows. The tribe then tied a rope around his neck and dragged his body away.
The Sentinelese who killed Chau couldn’t be prosecuted at the time, because contact with them and several tribes on the islands is illegal in a bid to protect their indigenous way of life and shield them from diseases.
Earlier this year, an American tourist was arrested for leaving a can of Coke for the untouched tribe on the same island – part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar chain.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov was held by police after he made the unauthorised landing via an inflatable boat, ‘carrying a coconut and a Diet Coke as offerings for the Sentinelese,’ police said.
The influencer had brought along a GoPro camera in the hopes of filming the encounter with the vulnerable tribe.
Over the years, Tah has made a name for himself as YouTube’s resident daredevil, filming himself take part in a series of controversial stunts.
In 2023 he visited Scotland’s so-called ‘Anthrax Island’ – contaminated with lethal bacteria during World War Two by scientists carrying out germ warfare experiments.
He made another video about his trip to ‘Deadman’s Island’ – the mysterious site off the north Kent coast that is banned to the public.
There, the remains of dozens of boys and men who died from contagious diseases upon ‘floating prisons’ 200 years ago can be found – meaning the desolate island is strewn with human skeletons.
A year before that, he spent over 48 hours underground in a decommissioned Titan II nuclear missile complex in Arkansas.
And in April earlier this year, he spent three days on ‘Snake Island’, or Kalampunian Damit Island in Borneo – known for its population of venomous snakes.
He also recently represented Ireland alongside his girlfriend in Redbull’s ‘Ibiza Royale’, the world’s ‘wildest obstacle race’ involving almost 200 international teams.
