When I was in Wakatobi I also met a young Bajo man, called Sadar, who is working for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).  His work is to inform Bajo communities about the devastating effects of dynamite and cyanide fishing.

“Many Bajo don’t like my work”, he says. “For some of them the ocean is only about business. They only care about catching the fish”.

Sadar  estimates that as many as 20% of the Bajo fishermen are using destructive fishing methods. “But many of them are still using the pana, the spear”, Sadar says, “and it is mostly businessmen with contacts in Makassar or Manado that are using the bombs”.

I ask if there are other groups using dynamites and cyanide, and he says “yes”. “But Bajo is the group that are using most destructive methods. It is sad, but that is the reality”.

The WWF-project in Wakatobi has been successful and less and less people are using dynamite in Wakatobi today. “But in other places, as for example in Kendari some miles north of Wakatobi, there are much more illegal fishermen”, Sadar says. “But no conversation project”. The reason is simple: Wakatobi is a national park and is important for the Indonesian tourism industry. Outside the national park it is business as usual.

The Bajau Laut have been spread over a huge area of Southeast Asia. Originally they come from the Sulu Sea in the Philippines, but only recently they were accused of illegal fishing in the Australian fishing zone … The last weeks I have been in Sulawesi in Indonesia, in order to meet Bajau, or Bajo, and to get an understanding about the diversity of these fascinating people.

I took a ferry from Sabah and arrived four days later in Wakatobi in Southeast Asia. I moved in to a  Bajo village called Sanpela, based approximately 100 meter from the closest island, Kaledupa, where I stayed for one week. It was astonishing how similar the language and the lifestyle was as compared to Malaysia and Philippines – even if they have lived separated for maybe 200 years. It took some days to learn a partly new vocabulary but after that we could communicate quite smoothly. The inhabitants were glad to hear news from Malaysia and Philippines, as some of them have relatives there. “Are there much fish?”, “Do you have any pictures”, “Are there still conflicts in the Philippines?”

The village Sanpela was established for 60-70 years ago when boat-dwellers arrived in the area. Still today more or less every family make a living from the sea (spear-, net- and hook-fishing), and you can see boys as young as five running around with fishing spears. Some people do also work with tourism, as Wakatobi is home of some of the best coral reefs in the world.

I came in contact with the Bajo village through the Dutch organization PESISIR who is working in Sanpela, where they support education and health care. Over the last years more and more tourists and student groups have come to Wakatobi, but it hasn’t affected Bajo in a very big scale.

My next project is to visit the Bajo village Topa, that is much more isolated. Erika Schagatay, a professor in Human Physiology at the Mid-Sweden University was there for more than 20 years ago, and I have brought some pictures from her journey. It will be very interesting to see how the village have changed over the past decades … but probably it ill be very much the same.

Bajau are outcasts of the see, but they are still Sama, “the same”. No matter if they are living in the suburbs of Manila or in an Indonesian National Park.

It was a real chock to enter Semporna (northeastern Borneo) at the first time. Everyone was speaking the language Sinama, they were driving cars, working in banks, using Internet cafes, etc. What in Mindanao was a small language spoken by a small tribe of sea people, is here the everyday language of more than 70 000 people.

But in fact this is not very strange. Today you can find many different Bajau groups. Originally they were all sea nomads but some left the nomadic life centuries ago. In Davao City I have been living with a Bajau group called sama Sama Pala´u or “the people that lives on boat” and they have maintained their traditional way of living in a very high extent. Few of them go to school, they are not familiar with the modern lifestyle and they make their living from fishing.

So, are there any Sama Pala’u (or Bajau Laut) in Semporna? Oh, yes! On my second day in Semporna I went to an isolated island called Denawan where I stayed for two nights. And there I could see more than 50 house boats = sea nomads, and approximately 50% of these boats are not equipped with an engine. They are used to travel between islands of Sabah, Kalimantan (Indonesia) and Philippines in search for fish and good weather conditions. They can freely cross the boarder between Malaysia and Philippines due to their status as indigenous people. They live on the boat – their house and their heaven!

In Semporna the fishing is great. On Denawan island Sama Pala´u cathced large number of fish every day, that later will be sold in the cities of Semporna, Sandakan or Kota Kinabalau. The dive sites outside of Semporna are listed among the best sites in the world, and every year thousands of tourists are arriving. They are mostly served by Bajau workers.

I have also been spending a lot of time in the fish port of Semporna, called Jombatan. It´s a lively place with fishing boats, fishermen, fruits, restaurants and thousands of Sinama speakers. Many of them were very really surprised and glad when they realized that I could speak their dialect: “You are the first white person that speak our language!”.

I have been talking to some of the younger fishermen in Matina Aplaya and they all say the same thing: “in young age we deliberately broke our eardrums”. It pains and bleeds for one week but after that they can dive without pain for the rest of their lives. Even a boy as young as eleven told me that his eardrums were now broken – “abostak talinga na!” You can find find more information about Bajau’s habit to break eardrums in this article : The last of the sea nomads (The Guardian).

I have also asked Bajau in Davao about the old times, when they first arrived in the city for approximately 30 years ago. The community leader of Matina Aplaya told me that before he settled in a stilt house in Davao he was a boat dweller. “When I got married in the age of 19 I built a boat for me, my wife and my younger brother and we stayed on the boat for a couple of years”. “It was a nice time, a lot of fish, a cluster of house boats, cheap food, and healthy coralls”. They had no boat machine and were paddling around the harbour of Davao. “Our two first children were born on the boat”.

The Badjao community in Matina Aplaya was established for approximately 20 years ago. In the beginning the village consisted of only a small number of families, but today the village has more than 300 inhabitants. And the number increases for every year as new migrants arrive from Zamboanga City. In total, there are three Badjao communities in Davao City. And they still break their eardrums …

Badjao have mastered the seas of Southeast Asia for centuries. They have been known as Sama Dilaut – the people that lives on boats. Historically they have been famous pearl divers and fishermen, and they could navigate over vast distances.

Today – on the other hand – they are seen the lowest people of all, specially in the Philippines. They are seen as uneducated (which they are), uncivilized, dirty and lazy. In many part of the Philippines, Badjao have become beggars, due to reduced fish levels and conflicts in the Sulu Sea.

But Badjao don’t seem to mind about the discrimination. They are still proud and know their traditions: they have other skills, other conceptions and other motives in life. Unlike many other indigenous tribes in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia they preserve their language and traditions, and no not suffer from social problems.

They are called the “Outcasts” and have resisted outside pressure for centuries. In young age they deliberately break their eardrums; they are Sama Pala’u – “People living on boats”.

The book “Badjao – People of the Sea” was written in 2010 after a fieldwork among Bajau Laut (or Sama Pala´u) in Davao City. To learn about indigenous people, is to learn about humanity.

In the beginning of April I finally left the Badjao community in Matina Aplaya, Davao City. It was a great time of playing with children, swimming and fishing. Towards the end I also started to learn the basics of their language, Sinama, which made the conversations deeper for every day. In the beginning I mostly played “Pangua” (zombie) with the younger children.

Many of the approximately 300 people in the community wanted to say good bye when I took my bag and left the village. Before they had recevied more than 500 pictures which I had printed and distributed among the families, and now they were waving with their photos and asked when I would come back – which probably will be within 1 year! Back home I will bring a couple of souveniers: a fishing spear, a traditional swimming foot, a pair of homemade swimming glasses, colorful cotton and pearls.

If you want to learn more about the journey, go to my “Aquatic Ape” page in Resedagboken