THE EYE OF BAJAU
The Bajau people, sometimes called "Sea Gypsies" or "Sea Nomads," make their home on boats and are the world's last remaining ancient sea nomads, inhabiting the Sulu and Celebes Seas between Mindanao and Borneo. Simple tall ship cabins are built on coral reefs in shallow seas. With no nationality, identity, schools, or hospitals, they make their living by fishing.
Their ancestry cannot be traced, and many of them are stateless. There is a romantic legend about the origins of the Bajau. According to the legend, a princess from Johor, Malaysia, was washed away in a flood. Her father sent people to search for her and ordered them to find her before returning. However, the men could not find the princess and therefore had to stay by the sea, eventually becoming the ancestors of the Bajau.
Statelessness has resulted in the Bajau lacking Malaysian national citizenship and being unable to live on land. Like nomads roaming the vast grasslands, the Bajau have been wandering the seas between Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia for thousands of years. With no nationality and an unknown origin, they are forever drifting on the sea. A wooden boat called "Lepa," with a narrow body and high bow, or a tall wooden house built on the shore, serves as their home for survival.
Diving is a daily routine for the Bajau, and they deliberately pierce their eardrums at a young age to reduce the pain caused by water pressure when diving. They can dive more than 30 meters below sea level to catch fish, pearls, and sea cucumbers. When diving, they wear hand-carved wooden goggles with glass lenses and carry harpoons made from scrap materials from boats.
Bajau women like to apply a white powder called "burak" or "borak," made from seaweed, rice, and spices, to their faces as sunscreen. It is very effective against the strong UV rays in the tropical area.
During my journey to the Bajau community, the boat sailed further into the sea, and the surrounding islands began to disappear on the horizon. Suddenly, huts started to appear, and the sailors pointed to a house not far away and shouted across the bow, "Bajau!" "Bajau!" Before we could respond, nearly ten small leaf-shaped wooden boats rapidly paddled towards us. As they approached our boat, they scrambled to grab the hull as if they could jump into our boat with a single leap. They held onto our boat but did not board, as if there was a tacit agreement among them. They began to beg for food, and the food distribution felt more like a robbery.
I gave the children a few “layered cakes,” which are traditional Malay pastries shaped in many layers. Surprisingly, when I handed them over, the older children gave them to the younger ones, who peeled them off layer by layer and shared with the others.
However, when I explored further into the community, the life of the Bajau people seemed different from the state of displacement I had imagined. They have built a village on the island; their children no longer need to endure the 'torture' of pierced eardrums, and their daily life shows signs of civilization.
Since the Bajau community is located in the bordering areas of various countries, the Bajau wandering at sea have been in conflict with these countries in recent decades. To avoid disputes and protect their marine resources, the governments have forced them to settle ashore. As a result, fewer Bajau continue to live on traditional boats, and the population of sea nomads is decreasing.
Nowadays, the Bajau have villages, sheep, and even schools. With the invasion of tourism, the Bajau have also started to sell fish to tourists at high prices, and children have learned to ask tourists for food. After eating, the plastic packaging is thrown directly into the sea. After interacting with the outside world, the Bajau people have adopted these “plastic world” habits and damaged their local environment. Therefore, is the intervention of civilization a benefit or a distraction for them?
I think it is the latter. Although there is a school here, these Bajau children only attend school for a month and then return home, continuing to live as fishermen. Meanwhile, visitors from civilized societies flock to the area, disrupting the Bajau's quiet and isolated lives. These photos were taken before 2017.
Photographer | Dorisluming
