For her senior thesis, Eva measured the time locals spent growing seaweed on the island of Pulau Bungin, located in an estuary just west of the port of Tinangea, Southeast Sulawesi. I really recommend looking up the island on Google Earth or Maps (search terms: “Pulau Bungin, Southeast Sulawesi” or “Pelabuhan TPI Tinangea, Southeast Sulawesi” then zoom in and scroll to the left to what looks like a spit of land within an estuary). The name Bungin means white sand beach in the local bahasa bajau dialect. If you zoom in to the spot, you can only see houses. Specifically 400 stilt houses, according to the regional statistics office. With their community consisting of just four hundred houses sitting in the middle of the ocean, it is not surprising they took to seaweed farming.
Pulau Bungin is inhabited solely by Bajau people. Bajau are a nomadic sea tribe found throughout Southeast Asia, where they are also known as Orang Sama. Until the 1970s, the members of this tribe were known for spending their entire lives at sea. They were born at sea. Families would traverse the region in groups of boats or offshore stilt villages like Pulau Bungin. Even today, the Bajau are famed for their skin diving abilities, traveling to 20 meters underwater on a single breath of air. In the 1970s, the Indonesian national government started a settlement program for the Bajau. Today, it is common for Eastern Indonesian coastal towns to have a Bajau section.
My field assistants Eva and Arfan are Bajau. Eva said that for fun in the city, she liked to gather with fellow members of the Bajau student union. Sounds kind of like being in a fraternity or sorority, right?
Arfan is pursuing a Geography major.
