A Life At Sea: the Bajau community of Malaysia

The Mariki is a multi-cultural community, pre-dominantly comprising the Sama-Bajau people, an Austronesian ethnic group from the Archipelago of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. The Bajaus are from SE Asia, particularly from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, with an estimated population of over 100,000. Forbidden to live on Malaysian soil or anywhere in Indonesia or the Philippines, the Sama-Bajaus cut off ties from the lands in the 1960s and instead built their whole life around the sea! Here too, they live a nomadic life, perhaps needing to move in certain seasons due to factors of weather and livelihood.

The Bajaus are thus referred to as the “sea gypsies” due to their seaborne, nomadic way of life. Following their traditional lifestyle, the Bajaus live on houseboats called lepa-lepa. Their houses are built of wood and erected on stilts; and the entire community is dependent on sea-based livelihoods including fishing and seaweed farming. And their whole life is played out at the sea – in the boathouses or the shacks or free-diving to hunt fish and get scallops or sea cucumbers. They cook coral fish over an open fire. At low tide on the full moon, they collect sea urchins. They eat, bathe, play, dance, wash clothes on the boat. Women give birth here. People die here too. They have room and facilities for doing all these activities on their sea habitat. 

Of course they have no access to schools or hospitals. The stateless people having the distasteful tag of refugees would probably be arrested if they try to get admitted to schools or hospitals. But within the havens they have created on the sea the interior amenities remain the same. Though of the most basic type, there are cooking facilities, chairs, beds, and storage spaces – in short everything that is necessary for the sparse lifestyle they lead. Though essentially Muslim, most Sama-Bajaus are less adherent to orthodox Islam, and instead practice a form of folk Islam, also revering local sea spirits, known as Jinn. For prayers, they  sometimes access mosques in the Bajau settlements on the shore. 

Only visiting the mainland town of Semporna to trade their wares and get other commodities needed for survival, the Bajaus have no other contact with people on land. The men and children reportedly spend so much time in the ocean that their eyes are adjusted to see more clearly underwater. They are known to dive up to 20 m deep in the oceans at an early age, thus often causing their eardrums to rupture. Every day the children get on their handmade pirogue (narrow wooden canoes), and equipped with a net and lance, they go off to search for food.  The ferocious hunters can catch an array of seafood such as octopus and eels, with ease.

The Bajaus are so closely related to the sea that they even measure time by the movement of the tides. And while we the land-creatures feel sea-sickness while traveling on water, the Bajaus are reported to experience land-sickness! And of course, they need to protect themselves from the sun so the girls and women of Bajau traditionally apply a paste of ground rice called burak, to prevent sunburns!

Of course a spirit of competition and the instinct to fight for survival must be actually their guiding force. And sure enough – they do conduct contests, in which men, women and children enthusiastically participate! And predictably they are also connected with the sea!

Of course, with time, there are efforts to create alternative sources of income for the community too; starting with handicrafts. Being developed as a tourist attraction automatically leads to the creation of a souvenir market. And thus many of the Bajaus are now involved in the handicraft industry, making wicker baskets and hand-woven artifacts. 

It is indeed intriguing to see entire lives being played out at sea, from birth to death - in such extremely challenging conditions. And yet they seek and find comfort and safety in their shaky water-borne habitats – reiterating the basic animal instinct of ‘coming home to roost’!