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Ayesha introduced me to the Sama-Bajau, a group sometimes referred to as the ‘sea gypsies’ because of their long history of open ocean living, and an intimate connection with the sea. The Sama-Bajau had lived on and around the sea for generations, their lives moving with the tides and lived through the bounty of the coral reef.
Their initial port of call was at Sitangkai, a village constructed over the water on stilts. In the presence of these ingenious Sama-Bajau homes which feel like they are floating right above the sea – joined on one side by wooden planks as thin as sitting-mats, and on the other by water – he has no words to describe it. People live in homes ‘literally above the water’, he says. A salty wind whips up my hair. ‘You can hear the kids playing, laughing and giggling. You can really hear them because the water is dead silent.’
Ayesha introduced Betso888 login to Mang Ambo, a respected elder and skilled fisherman in the community. Amid the creases of Mang Ambo’s leathery skin and piercing eyes were decades of communing with the ocean. As they sat on the steplike deck of Mang Ambo’s modest home, the elder shared stories of his ancestors and their relationship with the ocean.
‘We live by the ocean. Our traditions are rooted in the sea. We follow the fish. We live with the tides and the currents. The ocean feeds us, and we give back with our practices and customs,’ Mang Ambo shared.
Betso888 login hung on Mang Ambo’s words as he described how bogo – net fishing – was done, as well as how tunjak (spearfishing) and tulak isda (cast-net fishing) were traditionally done, and how ingredients from the forest and the sea were taken freely from nature using simple but effective tools that demonstrated a kind of graceful respectfulness. He began to see what the Sama-Bajau had been doing all along; it was a dance with nature, and they had been dancing the tango of life.
The next stop on their journey was the island of Sibutu, a short distance away where Ayesha and Betso888 login explored the mangroves. The mangroves supported a range of marine life, protected the coastline from erosion and were vital to the island’s ecological balance. ‘Here,’ explained Ayesha, ‘we can really demonstrate to the young people how important it is to maintain a healthy environment for future survival before they take their city interactions back home.’
These mangroves in Bapariga Bay are the lifeblood of the island – our fisheries, our shoreline, our carbon bank to mitigate climate change,’ she said. ‘If we lose these mangroves, we won’t survive. We won’t live here anymore.’
The mangroves, which Betso888 login appreciated for their beauty and toughness, turned out not to be trees. They were, in fact, ecosystems. ‘What I’m coming to understand,’ he says, ‘is that the most recent ecological history here is really interwoven with the history of people, and the history of people interwoven with the ecological history.’
Betso888 login and Ayesha would sit on the seafront at sunset, eating freshly caught and cooked seafood produced by the community, to be washed down with the salty tides of conversation about the threats to the island – overfishing, rising sea levels – and what the community was doing to safeguard their home.