U.S. man, Bajo woman live together

Hasrul, The Jakarta Post, Kendari

Era, 5, was running with small steps along a wooden bridge in Sama Bahari village, her little hand clutching a small plastic bag containing iced water.

She drank the water through a straw, on and off, until the bag was empty. Over a dozen dark-skinned kids, all naked, were running behind her. They got along very well, seemingly indifferent to the burning sun. In another corner, other children were swimming or paddling small boats.

Era is easily distinguishable from the rest of the kids of the Bajo tribe because she alone has fair skin and blonde hair. From a distance, however, you can hear her talking in the Bajo language.

Era was born to an American father, anthropologist Chris Majors, 38, and a Bajo mother, Ida, 30. Majors has spent 10 years in this village studying the lives of the Bajo people.

Ida, meanwhile, is a real Bajo woman. She observes all the traditional mores of her tribe. Like other Bajo people, she believes in the existence of Umbo Mandilao, the ancestor of the Bajo people who dwells in the sea and acts as their guardian.

A marriage between a Caucasian man and a Bajo woman (or vice versa) is very unusual. Majors himself never expected that his stay in Bajo Sampela village, Kaledupa district, Wakatobi regency, would finally lead to his marrying Ida.

"I lived here (in Sampela) for only a year before I married Ida. I gave a dowry of Rp 2 million in cash and a ring made of 3 grams of gold," Majors said.

Their marriage was held in conformity with local custom and was attended by Majors' parents. "I could do nothing when Chris suddenly proposed marriage," Ida said, rather shyly, in a strong Bajo accent.

After they had been married for four years, they had a daughter, Era. Like most babies born in the Bajo community, Era was given a drop of seawater, a symbol that she should, as a member of the Bajo community, love the sea, a source of life for the Bajo people.

Unlike her father, who can speak fluent Indonesian, Era can speak only the Bajo language. She does not even know how to speak English, the mother tongue of her father.

As for Ida, she speaks Indonesian and is now learning to speak English. She is devoted to her husband and will go to the U.S. if her husband returns home. "Chris asked me to go to Perth, Australia, eight times and each time I agreed," she said.

Majors said that he decided to marry Ida because of his deep love for the isolated Bajo tribe. For Majors the anthropologist, the Bajo tribe is an invaluable asset. These people must be included in the environmental conservation program, particularly as regards the Wakatobi group of islands.

Majors has dedicated his life to the interests of the Bajo community. In the 10 years he has spent among these people, he has provided the Bajo people with counseling, medical care and other forms of assistance. He has also built a store where the fish caught by the Bajo can be kept.

Majors has also established the Bajo Matilla Foundation, hoping that this foundation, which concentrates on research on the Bajo people, will help them to better tap natural resources while at the same time preserving their indigenous culture and traditions.

In Sampela, Majors and his family live in the house of his parents-in-law in Sama Bahari village in the coastal Kaledupa area.

The house, like hundreds of other Bajo dwellings, stands on a large slab of rock, known locally as an apo, which is also its foundation.

Bajo people live their everyday lives in houses like these. There, they wash, bathe and fulfill the calls of nature. They moor their boats nearby. Like his Bajo kinfolk, Majors has made fishing his livelihood.

Majors, however, is very much concerned by the belief of the Bajo people in the existence of Umbo Mandilao, whom, they believe, will ensure that the sea will provide an abundance of food.

They do not care, therefore, that the use of explosives or other destructive means of fishing will eventually damage marine life. They are convinced that Umbu Mandilao will continue to provide them with an inexhaustible supply of fish.