In the CNN article “They’ve sailed across Southeast Asia for centuries. Now, these sea nomads are being forced to live on land” by Rebecca Cairns, underlines the increasing concern for the disappearance of the Bajau Laut (people) traditions, and their way of life due to the threat climate change poses on the marine environment. The Bajau Laut are known as an indigenous seafaring group in Southeast Asia that had lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle on the ocean for centuries by living on boats and fishing for income (and nourishment) (Cairns, p.g 1). Furthermore the Bajau Laut lifestyle isn’t just reliant on the ocean’s resources but they are biologically adapted to it. For example Bajau Laut’s larger spleens give them the ability to hold their breath way longer than the normal person. For centuries the Bajau Laut historically have sailed across the waters between modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, an area overlapping the coral triangle which is praised for its vast biodiversity (specifically the area Semporna became one the most essential diving spots) (Cairns, p.g 2).
Bilkuin Jimi Salih a Bajau Laut local explained, “for generations his family has relied on the sea, by keeping time using the rhythm of the tides, travel, fishing,…Their traditional lifestyle has always been low impact: they take only what they need to survive, moving from reef to reef as fish shoals migrate and allowing the ecosystem time to regenerate” (Cairns p.g. 3). Now relying solely on the sea has become increasingly challenging. Forcing many Bajau Laut peoples to abandon their traditions and settle on land. However with the little income due to the lack of fish (for fishing) the expensive cost to build and upkeep Lepas are proving to be another obstacle for families.
Furthermore Cairns says a variety of challenges for vulnerable coastal communities include, “Fish bombing is cheap and easy,” says Fatta… costs around 15 Malaysian ringgit ($3.60) …but could provide 2,000-to-3,000-ringgit worth of fish ($478 to $717)”… plastic pollution (waterbottles, wrappers, flipflops, etc),… and Tourism (a big economic sector for countries like Sabah that has a growth of 120% in less than two decades), etc” (Cairns p.g. 6). Many factors such as the ones mentioned above, and many more to come such as the Bajau Laut in Semporna technically not being Malaysian citizens (despite living in the region for centuries), and the ongoing legal battle with rights to healthcare, education, etc all are cracks forming in a greater systemic issue that has been present from the beginning.
A few things I noticed was that the connection to these fishermen conflicts are incredibly similar to the issues presented in the Fishers, Monks, and Cadres reading my class discussed a few weeks ago. Where the loss of marine life due to climate change had forced fishermen to find different jobs and changed their way of life. Yet some endings were better than others. And lastly the author Cairns does an interesting job of giving an extensive narrative/explanation of the hardships the Bajau Laut community group face. By stating the issues on the water and their eventual hardships when they settle on land too. Stating systemic economic inequalities they never had to challenge before such as the citizenship legal battle. But then she managed to put a positive spin at the end which definitely made it sound like an outsiders view.
Work Cited
https://www.cnn.com/climate/malaysia-bajau-indigenous-sea-nomads-land-c2e-spc/index.html