[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
in the community of San Paulo in waka
tobe National Park in Southeast Sulawesi
every child is born a twin at birth
ritual experts who have overseen the
development of a woman’s pregnancy
deliver both her human child and its
twin the placenta its fibrous form
believed to be the child’s octopus
sibling after birth the placenta is
returned to its home in the sea
establishing a lifelong relationship
between humans and the spirits that
inhabit the ocean in the form of marine
life this is the unseen world of the
Bajau of San pella who call themselves
the sama their stories are an example of
how biodiversity and cultural diversity
are inexorably linked and how we cannot
for the Bajau the marine environment is
not only the source of their sustenance
it’s the home of ancestors and animal
counterparts that are ever-present in
their everyday lives and activities it’s
also the realm of bo Jango the sama
ancestor who they recognized as a
qur’anic figure of knowledge the wind
the rains the phases of the Moon the
patterns of the waves are a map that the
sama follow back year after year to bow
Django’s fields below the sea fields
that have been utilized by their
forebearers for centuries with the
the sama are part of a larger group of
seafarers who inhabit the oceans around
Indonesia Malaysia the Philippines East
Timor and Papua New Guinea
the Bajau of Southeast Sulawesi have
traditionally lived their lives in boats
on the ocean and in the mangroves where
the Bajau traditional territory
corresponds to the Coral Triangle a six
million square kilometer area that
contains some of the Earth’s most
diverse ocean life
this includes 37% of the world’s coral
reef species and 56% of the fish species
found in the indo-pacific marine region
Bajau communities are frontline
communities witnesses to the impacts
that climate change and overfishing have
on one of the world’s most important and
most threatened marine regions but as
the Bajau bear witness
they are also among the most vulnerable
to the effects that environmental change
have on social cultural and economic
life around the archipelago sama beliefs
rituals and traditions are part of a
cosmology of the sea that incorporates
their knowledge of the coral triangles
marine environment and their practice of
Islam it’s based on intimate knowledge
of the renewal cycles and habits of
marine species that are expressed
through spiritual rules about how humans
should interact with the ocean and those
who inhabitant it’s an ethical system
one that governs if and how resources
should be used that parallels
contemporary conservation strategies
like no-take zones and the selective
harvesting of marine species but the
sama culture that allows them to live
sustainably with the sea teeters on the
brink of eradication as a result of
Herman policies and for practical
reasons the sama established a more
sedentary community in waka tobe
National Park in the early 1970s the
shift to a more sedentary lifestyle
along with the effect of evolving
resources governing of resources in the
National Park meant that the sama had to
give up many of their nomadic practices
that had allowed them to harvest
resources from a very wide maritime
territory more integration into
neighboring land-based communities also
exposed the sama to prejudice and
discrimination against their beliefs
their way of life and their
interpretation of Islam government
services and policies that directly
affect this village and the ocean that
surrounds it are largely determined by
non Bajau they see the sama insistence
to remain on the sea and to continue to
practice a culture that has arisen from
a life lived in that environment as a
resistance to the ideals of modern life
in Indonesia at the same time sama nets
are coming up empty r every year the
impending collapse of Southeast Asian
fisheries due to climate change and
overfishing have decimated the marine
life around their village older
generation of sama interpret this as a
sign of bow Django’s anger at those sama
fishermen who resorted to disruptive
fishing practices as the ones vast ocean
territory that they fished became more
and more restricted and there were less
and less fish to be had today sama
youths know that they face an uncertain
future as it is clear that the ocean can
no longer support their community but if
the Bahji were to live without the sea
then their culture and the ecological
knowledge that it contains can only be
maintained if the next generation sees
the value in carrying on
our traditions at a time when
environmental pressures threaten their
existence as people of the sea policies
and prejudices that discriminate against
diverse ways of life communicate to sama
youth that they don’t have any culture
that’s worth saving conservationists and
government officials often have
difficulty incorporating the Bajau into
their projects because they see Bajau
beliefs as a hindrance rather than as a
contribution to scientific knowledge
conservation efforts often focus on
changing human behavior in the face of
environmental degradation worldwide it
sees cultures as being lost as the
environments that shape them are
threatened and disappear indigenous
peoples around the world are beginning
to voice their roles as stewards and
protectors of particular habitats
worldwide habitats where human culture
has shaped the way that people should
interact with and sustain their
environments nowhere is this more
important or more evident than in
Indonesia where environmental
destruction threatens the nation’s
resources and diverse communities around
the archipelago face discrimination and
environmental loss the key to a
sustainable future might be held in the
very societies that are losing their
homes and their abilities to practice
their ways of life this means that we
cannot determine a priori what kind of
diversity is good or bad we have to
foster diverse life ways for the
potential that they hold for our human
public and for the resources that we
need to support it it’s time that we see
the wisdom of these unseen worlds as a
contribution to addressing environmental
degradation around the world as an
anthropologist who works for a graduate
program that brings together people of
diverse regions religions and
backgrounds in the pursuit of a just and
multicultural Indonesia I believe that
the greatest potential that we have to
solve our global problems lies not just
in recognising difference or even in
tolerating difference but in valuing
diversity as an ever-evolving repository
of human innovation imagination and
knowledge digital storyteller Matt
College hello and I are making media
that aims to elevate the perspectives of
people like the sama who struggled to
have their voices heard and their
culture seen as something that’s
valuable we’re making a film about the
Bajau and waka Toby not just to talk
about the link between biodiversity and
cultural diversity but also to share
samus stories with other young people
around Indonesia in the hopes that it
will inspire them to see diversity in
all of its forms as something that’s
for me defending diversity is an ethical
orientation I believe that all of our
lives are twin to the unseen world below
the sea as our friend
Bojo activist Iskander says it is the
ocean that determines our lives not our
lives that determine the ocean Iskander
says if to give up Bahji life means to
live by boundaries that aren’t really
there not just the boundaries between
regions but boundaries that separate
people from their environment boundaries
that separate tradition from religion
and I choose to be Bajau
even though we have given up our nomadic
life on boats we remain on the sea our
culture was built
the see if you skinned a Bajau the very
core of him would be the sea the deepest
part of him is the sea skander hopes
that his children will be able to choose
to be Bajau but he sees his culture and
the knowledge that it contains
disappearing with the sea life around
them our ability to join the sama and
other indigenous peoples around the
world in resisting this kind of loss
lies in our collective efforts to
protect diversity both human and other
than human an ethics of diversity can
start in the recognition that the seen
and unseen worlds of human culture are
connected and that it’s the boundaries
that we imagine between humans and
between human and other than human life
on earth that are truly ephemeral human
diversity is one side of our shared
potential we have to protect it not only
for individuals or individual
communities but for the potential that
it holds for all life on this earth in
the future thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
in the community of San Paulo in waka
tobe National Park in Southeast Sulawesi
every child is born a twin at birth
ritual experts who have overseen the
development of a woman’s pregnancy
deliver both her human child and its
twin the placenta its fibrous form
believed to be the child’s octopus
sibling after birth the placenta is
returned to its home in the sea
establishing a lifelong relationship
between humans and the spirits that
inhabit the ocean in the form of marine
life this is the unseen world of the
Bajau of San pella who call themselves
the sama their stories are an example of
how biodiversity and cultural diversity
are inexorably linked and how we cannot
for the Bajau the marine environment is
not only the source of their sustenance
it’s the home of ancestors and animal
counterparts that are ever-present in
their everyday lives and activities it’s
also the realm of bo Jango the sama
ancestor who they recognized as a
qur’anic figure of knowledge the wind
the rains the phases of the Moon the
patterns of the waves are a map that the
sama follow back year after year to bow
Django’s fields below the sea fields
that have been utilized by their
forebearers for centuries with the
the sama are part of a larger group of
seafarers who inhabit the oceans around
Indonesia Malaysia the Philippines East
Timor and Papua New Guinea
the Bajau of Southeast Sulawesi have
traditionally lived their lives in boats
on the ocean and in the mangroves where
the Bajau traditional territory
corresponds to the Coral Triangle a six
million square kilometer area that
contains some of the Earth’s most
diverse ocean life
this includes 37% of the world’s coral
reef species and 56% of the fish species
found in the indo-pacific marine region
Bajau communities are frontline
communities witnesses to the impacts
that climate change and overfishing have
on one of the world’s most important and
most threatened marine regions but as
the Bajau bear witness
they are also among the most vulnerable
to the effects that environmental change
have on social cultural and economic
life around the archipelago sama beliefs
rituals and traditions are part of a
cosmology of the sea that incorporates
their knowledge of the coral triangles
marine environment and their practice of
Islam it’s based on intimate knowledge
of the renewal cycles and habits of
marine species that are expressed
through spiritual rules about how humans
should interact with the ocean and those
who inhabitant it’s an ethical system
one that governs if and how resources
should be used that parallels
contemporary conservation strategies
like no-take zones and the selective
harvesting of marine species but the
sama culture that allows them to live
sustainably with the sea teeters on the
brink of eradication as a result of
Herman policies and for practical
reasons the sama established a more
sedentary community in waka tobe
National Park in the early 1970s the
shift to a more sedentary lifestyle
along with the effect of evolving
resources governing of resources in the
National Park meant that the sama had to
give up many of their nomadic practices
that had allowed them to harvest
resources from a very wide maritime
territory more integration into
neighboring land-based communities also
exposed the sama to prejudice and
discrimination against their beliefs
their way of life and their
interpretation of Islam government
services and policies that directly
affect this village and the ocean that
surrounds it are largely determined by
non Bajau they see the sama insistence
to remain on the sea and to continue to
practice a culture that has arisen from
a life lived in that environment as a
resistance to the ideals of modern life
in Indonesia at the same time sama nets
are coming up empty r every year the
impending collapse of Southeast Asian
fisheries due to climate change and
overfishing have decimated the marine
life around their village older
generation of sama interpret this as a
sign of bow Django’s anger at those sama
fishermen who resorted to disruptive
fishing practices as the ones vast ocean
territory that they fished became more
and more restricted and there were less
and less fish to be had today sama
youths know that they face an uncertain
future as it is clear that the ocean can
no longer support their community but if
the Bahji were to live without the sea
then their culture and the ecological
knowledge that it contains can only be
maintained if the next generation sees
the value in carrying on
our traditions at a time when
environmental pressures threaten their
existence as people of the sea policies
and prejudices that discriminate against
diverse ways of life communicate to sama
youth that they don’t have any culture
that’s worth saving conservationists and
government officials often have
difficulty incorporating the Bajau into
their projects because they see Bajau
beliefs as a hindrance rather than as a
contribution to scientific knowledge
conservation efforts often focus on
changing human behavior in the face of
environmental degradation worldwide it
sees cultures as being lost as the
environments that shape them are
threatened and disappear indigenous
peoples around the world are beginning
to voice their roles as stewards and
protectors of particular habitats
worldwide habitats where human culture
has shaped the way that people should
interact with and sustain their
environments nowhere is this more
important or more evident than in
Indonesia where environmental
destruction threatens the nation’s
resources and diverse communities around
the archipelago face discrimination and
environmental loss the key to a
sustainable future might be held in the
very societies that are losing their
homes and their abilities to practice
their ways of life this means that we
cannot determine a priori what kind of
diversity is good or bad we have to
foster diverse life ways for the
potential that they hold for our human
public and for the resources that we
need to support it it’s time that we see
the wisdom of these unseen worlds as a
contribution to addressing environmental
degradation around the world as an
anthropologist who works for a graduate
program that brings together people of
diverse regions religions and
backgrounds in the pursuit of a just and
multicultural Indonesia I believe that
the greatest potential that we have to
solve our global problems lies not just
in recognising difference or even in
tolerating difference but in valuing
diversity as an ever-evolving repository
of human innovation imagination and
knowledge digital storyteller Matt
College hello and I are making media
that aims to elevate the perspectives of
people like the sama who struggled to
have their voices heard and their
culture seen as something that’s
valuable we’re making a film about the
Bajau and waka Toby not just to talk
about the link between biodiversity and
cultural diversity but also to share
samus stories with other young people
around Indonesia in the hopes that it
will inspire them to see diversity in
all of its forms as something that’s
for me defending diversity is an ethical
orientation I believe that all of our
lives are twin to the unseen world below
the sea as our friend
Bojo activist Iskander says it is the
ocean that determines our lives not our
lives that determine the ocean Iskander
says if to give up Bahji life means to
live by boundaries that aren’t really
there not just the boundaries between
regions but boundaries that separate
people from their environment boundaries
that separate tradition from religion
and I choose to be Bajau
even though we have given up our nomadic
life on boats we remain on the sea our
culture was built
the see if you skinned a Bajau the very
core of him would be the sea the deepest
part of him is the sea skander hopes
that his children will be able to choose
to be Bajau but he sees his culture and
the knowledge that it contains
disappearing with the sea life around
them our ability to join the sama and
other indigenous peoples around the
world in resisting this kind of loss
lies in our collective efforts to
protect diversity both human and other
than human an ethics of diversity can
start in the recognition that the seen
and unseen worlds of human culture are
connected and that it’s the boundaries
that we imagine between humans and
between human and other than human life
on earth that are truly ephemeral human
diversity is one side of our shared
potential we have to protect it not only
for individuals or individual
communities but for the potential that
it holds for all life on this earth in
the future thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you
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