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The Life and Culture of the Bajau, Sea Gypsies
... Maritime culture is a traditional system that is no longer perceptible. Bajau communities have nearly entirely lost this customary maritime system [41]. Their customary system was formerly known as Kepunggawaan and was a lordship scheme. ...
The complexity of institutional issues that cross sectors and borders in natural resource management determines how a community entity might persist and endure. In Bajau communities, institutional supports are portrayed as impediments to carrying out their sea-oriented cultural activities. This research explores how institutional support intersects with Bajau community activities in a locally managed marine area. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Wakatobi Regency of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, to generate descriptive data into portrayals of institutional supports and impediments. However, the Bajau cultural governance system shows signs of degradation due to several factors. The complex customary system and multi-scale governance that overlap in the marine and coastal areas of Wakatobi dissuade the Bajau from consenting to the implementation of locally managed marine areas. Instead of migrating or preserving their customary system, the Bajau encounter contemporary challenges within intercultural conflicts, rapid population growth, stigmatisation, and acculturation. Consequently, new ways of theorising about Bajau indigeneity, communal property rights, local knowledge recognition, and new policies for settling the intricacy of institutional and cultural interrelations are urgently needed.
... This is due to overexploitation and even destructive shing practices. This condition of environmental degradation has an adverse impact on the Bajau themselves, namely the decrease in income (Jeon, 2019). With the economic challenges, the Bajau have adapted to these capitalism-based socio-economic changes by adopting patron clients within their own communities (Isiyana Co-management is not a new practice in Bajau Wakatobi, the activities shown in Table 2 reveal the program implementation detail by various organizations. ...
The Bajau are a sea nomad group in Indonesia with the largest proportion of the population living nearby or utilizing marine resources in the fragile pelagic zone. In general, the Bajau have been a left-behind group and thus occupied a peripheral role in coastal and marine management and conservation. In Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi Province, the Bajau communities are marginalized in terms of policy recognition and development plan. This paper explores how a co-management system which is a platform to synchronize the community and organization needs in the coastal management and customary practices has failed to recruit the Bajau’s participation. The primary data were collected using multi-sited ethnographic method in five Bajau villages in Wakatobi and using key informant interviews with related stakeholders. The inter-customary controls for coastal and marine management, the issue of social cohesion within the Bajau communities, and the lack of institutional support were investigated as drivers of co-management failure in Wakatobi. The implementation of a co-management system requires multi-sectoral agreement and socio-cultural consideration. Unless the Bajau are acknowledged, accepted, and involved as an important partner in marine management and conservation, the success of the co-management system remains in doubt.
... The Bajau population has become so widely scattered in eastern Indonesia not merely because they have moved around the seas, but also because they have kept forming maritime creoles in their destinations by accommodating migrants as well as the native peoples of various origins (Nagatsu, 2017). Many scholars who have researched the Bajau communities found that Bajau people are very consumptive and good hospitality (Stacey et al., 2018, Suryanegara and Nahib, 2015, Jeon, 2019. The language of Bajau people is influenced by local dialects around their settlement. ...
Attaining sustainable resource management encompasses multilevel challenges and interdisciplinary
approaches from grassroots efforts to international agreements. In the context of coastal and marine management,
the complexities represented by the variety of local entities, regimes, and institutional supports are captured as
current challenges in sustainability efforts. Such challenges, unfortunately, persist in the group of customary
communities such as those of the Bajau, who live in coastal and marine areas. In an effort to address the
aforementioned challenges, this research proposes a model for integrating the Traditional Ecological Knowledge
(TEK) of the Bajau into Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMA) scheme in Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi. A
qualitative approach involving multi-sited ethnography and interviews was employed in this study. TEK as a
concept is drawn upon to strengthen the local practices for sustainable resource use and therefore develop policy
recommendations. However, in the case of Bajau communities, the dimensions of the TEK encompass
conservation practices, ethno-fisheries, cultural beliefs, customary laws, weather and cultural astronomy, and
adaptive management. The manifestation of the TEK needs to add the term 'exchange knowledge' due to the
history and nature of former nomadic groups that interacted and exchanged knowledge and goods with other
groups with whom they were in contact. Intercultural relations between the Bajau and dominant customary groups
in Wakatobi position the Bajau as migrants and second-class people, both socio-culturally and in the context of
various conservation activities. The co-management programs that involve the Bajau do not seem to consider the
basic needs and practices of this group in current sustainable resource management. This situation indirectly
contributes to the marginalization and growing development threats for the Bajau in Wakatobi. In addition, the
complexities in the realm of contemporary Bajau society are not adequately considered in Wakatobi's
development priority programs. The culturally inclusive projects and LMMA model do not engage Bajau
communities, even though this group is pivotal in nurturing marine ecology in alignment with multiple TEK
practices and a maritime culture orientation. In brief, the output model of this research examines the various terms
to disentangle the challenges in cultural identity, intellectual property and rights, capacity building, livelihood
diversification, and communal space in the Bajau communities in Wakatobi. In advance of making
recommendations to implement the model, this research explored key attributes related to Bajau customary
institutions, local government, and Wakatobi National Park.
The restoration of the coastal areas through mangrove plantations has become an appropriate practice to substantiate sustainable resources management. Community involvement and targeted program implementation are the main factors affecting social welfare and environmental security. Labour Intensive Mangrove Planting (PKPM) is a program initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia as a national economic recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kaledupa Island, Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi is one area that was replanted mangroves about 81 hectares. As implemented, this program works with some communities such as Bajau Sampela and Mantigola. This research aimed to investigate the community perceptions of socio-cultural changes of the Bajau community in Kaledupa in the short term from the PKPM program. A qualitative approach with an ethnographic method was applied to this study and in-depth interview (n=6) to Wakatobi National Park (WNP) authority from September 2020 to June 2021. Bajau is having a strong relationship with nature in an ecological complexity system. The perception of the Bajau community to PKPM was based on short-term economic motives. Various existence issues as follows community participation and leadership, co-management system, customary conflicts in coastal area management, and strengthening traditional ecological knowledge are the points of discussion in this study. Bajau communities are presuming the degradation of their cultural identity and governance system that is very vulnerable to adopting the disruptive era without proper knowledge and dependency on nature. Involvement of customary institutions in sustainable mangrove management of Bajau in Kaledupa island should acknowledge the transdisciplinary integration and shareholders participation. Nevertheless, PKPM briefly helps in giving back the trust issue of Bajau communities to WNP authority and accelerates community-based conservation bridging to sustainable development goals from local practices.
The restoration of the coastal areas through mangrove plantations has become an appropriate practice to substantiate sustainable resources management. Community involvement and targeted program implementation are the main factors affecting social welfare and environmental security. Labour Intensive Mangrove Planting (PKPM) is a program initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia as a national economic recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kaledupa Island, Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi is one area that was replanted mangroves about 81 hectares. As implemented, this program works with some communities such as Bajau Sampela and Mantigola. This research aimed to investigate the community perceptions of socio-cultural changes of the Bajau community in Kaledupa in the short term from the PKPM program. A qualitative approach with an ethnographic method was applied to this study and in-depth interview (n=6) to Wakatobi National Park (WNP) authority from September 2020 to June 2021. Bajau is having a strong relationship with nature in an ecological complexity system. The perception of the Bajau community to PKPM was based on short-term economic motives. Various existence issues as follows community participation and leadership, co-management system, customary conflicts in coastal area management, and strengthening traditional ecological knowledge are the points of discussion in this study. Bajau communities are presuming the degradation of their cultural identity and governance system that is very vulnerable to adopting the disruptive era without proper knowledge and dependency on nature. Involvement of customary institutions in sustainable mangrove management of Bajau in Kaledupa island should acknowledge the transdisciplinary integration and shareholders participation. Nevertheless, PKPM briefly helps in giving back the trust issue of Bajau communities to WNP authority and accelerates community-based conservation bridging to sustainable development goals from local practices.
Known as sea tribe, Bajo tribe is foreigners in Karimunjawa. As a sea tribe, they are nomadic and live on the boat before settling in Karimunjawa. The encouragement to settle in Karimunjawa is due to the fact that the island has a lot of fish and they exploit it to make their living. At the beginning, they live on the boat, but sometimes they move to the land. Later on, they build houses on stilts at coastal areas.
The process experienced by Bajo tribe from sea to land tribe is caused by some factors, from the effort to adapt with local people, decreasing number of the captured fish, the government program to make Bajo tribe becomes the land settlers and the change of their livelihood.
This research is aimed to study social change occurring to Bajo tribe as a sea tribe that was formerly nomadic into land tribe dwelling in Karimunjawa. Moreover, this research also intended to study the push factors and the impact from the social change toward the life of the settled Bajo society. In line with the problem and the objectives of this research, the qualitative method with the anthropological and sociological approach was used. These two approaches were applied in order to give a better understanding of the social change of Bajo tribe that had already settled in Karimunjawa.
The result of the research shows that there is a social change in Bajo society living permanently in Karimunjawa that is, the change of daily behavior in the society, social interaction with other tribes, values held by the society and social institution, structure and social classes. Social change occurring to Bajo society in Karimunjawa brings positive influences. The social changes among others are awareness towards the importance of education, Bajo society has new jobs other than fisherman, the increase of income, living standard, also modernization in fisheries system. The negative impact as a consequence of the social changes is faded culture, changes in life orientation and views of life, and consumerism in the society.
Albertus Bobby Widagdo
- Ade Amelia
The Political Sea Conservation Policies, State Power, and Symbolic Violence The Case of the Bajau in the Wakatobi Marine National Park
- Anh Liên
- Khac