After dawn in a small eastern Indonesia town, non-binary Bissu priests walk barefoot to perform an annual Mappalili ritual. It marks the start of the planting season on the island of Sulawesi where the androgynous Bissu community now fighting against extinction.

Less than 40 Bissu remain in just a few areas across South Sulawesi, according to anthropologists, where they are actively taking on cultural and shaman-like roles to prevent their traditions from becoming a distant memory.