Bajau people are not seafarers<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An expert on the Bajau, an ethnic group with
\norigins in Sulawesi, challenged yesterday the long-standing
\nassumption that the Bajau are sea-faring people.<\/p>\n
"If they were a sea-faring people, their boats would have been
\nmuch bigger and specially designed for sea voyages such as the
\nphinisi, a traditional boat of the Bugis people," said Ali
\nMaturahim, the chairman of Sama (Bajau) Foundation.<\/p>\n
Instead, he said, their traditional boats were small, capable
\nof carrying only four people, and were designed for shallow
\nwater, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
The Bajau people are found in Sulawesi, the Philippines and
\nMalaysia.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Kendari, the provincial capital of Southeast
\nSulawesi, Ali said that there was various evidence which proved
\nthat the Bajau are actually land-dwellers.<\/p>\n
Ali pointed, for example, to the importance of horse and lance
\nfigures to the Bajau in Sabah, Malaysia.<\/p>\n
That the Bajau are land-dwellers as opposed to sea-faring
\npeople had also been asserted by a French scholar, Ali said,
\nwhile identifying the scholar only as Gaynor. Ali said the
\nFrenchman had conducted research in 1990 and had ascertained that
\nBajau actually originated from Balu Island, currently a regency
\nknown as Muna in South Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
The Bajau became sea-faring people only because they were
\nforced off their land by other ethnic groups, Ali said.<\/p>\n
Ali's foundation is designed to improve the standard of living
\nof the Bajau, most of whom now live in poverty, suffer from poor
\nhealth and do not receive proper education.<\/p>\n
He said that it was more important to study ways of improving
\ntheir welfare than to focus too much research on their origins.
\n(03)<\/p>",
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