Les derniers nomades des mers

Dans un récif corallien au large des Philippines, de la Malaisie et de l’Indonésie vit depuis des générations un peuple nomade, dont les membres passent la quasi-totalité de leur temps en mer, sur de petites embarcations. Mais ce mode de vie ancestral est aujourd’hui menacé. * Lire l’article en anglais, ici: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/18/last-sea-nomads

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Now in her 50s, Ibu Diana Botutihe is one of the few remaining Bajau to have lived her entire life on a boat, visiting land only briefly in order to trade fish for rice, water and other staples. What makes Diana’s life at sea all the more remarkable is the fact that her traditional lepa-lepa boat measures just 5m long and 1.5m wide

Marine nomads such as Imran in Sulawesi, Indonesia, are highly skilled. To avoid a painful bite, Imran will catch this box fish by placing his thumb and forefinger in its eye sockets. Once the fish is essentially blindfolded, Imran will lead it back to his boat

As one of the world’s last surviving sea nomads, Diana’s cramped boat is filled with the accoutrements of everyday living – jerry cans, blackened stockpots, plastic utensils, a kerosene lamp and a pair of pot plants. Malay people have lived at sea for centuries, plying a tract of ocean between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia

 

Ibu Ane looks on as her son Ramdan forages the reef for clams. Since Ane’s husband died of the bends as a result of diving, she has relied on her son to support her during their six-month-long stints at sea 

Jatmin, an octopus specialist, swims back to his boat carrying a freshly speared cephalod mollusc

Since diving is the main occupation for the Bajau people, they deliberately rupture their eardrums at an early age. Unsurprisingly, most older Bajau are hard of hearing. They hunt with spear guns fashioned from boat timber, tyre rubber and scrap metal

Pak Siding Salihing improvises a song. Traditional Bajau cosmology is a combination of animism and Islam that reveals a complex relationship with the ocean

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*voir vidéo par ailleurs:  Coral reefs

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/jan/25/national-geographic-belize-coral