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Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries pp 97–123Cite as

Understanding Social Wellbeing and Values of Small-Scale Fisheries amongst the Sama-Bajau of Archipelagic Southeast Asia

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Part of the book series: MARE Publication Series ((MARE,volume 17))

Abstract

The Sama-Bajau represent one of the most widely dispersed Indigenous groups in Southeast Asia. Recent estimates indicate a total population of approximately 1.1 million, with around 200,000 living in areas of high biodiversity in the islands of eastern Indonesia, 347,000 in Malaysia (Sabah) and 564,000 in the Philippines. Sama-Bajau culture is intimately connected to marine environments on which they depend for subsistence and cash income, as well as their cultural identity. Culturally defined patterns of fishing activity (including migratory expeditions) unite all sectors of Sama-Bajau communities through catching, consuming, processing and trading of marine resources. Fishing and gathering of shellfish and other strand resources provide the focus for individual and communal relations within villages and across extensive kin and trading networks. The maintenance and transmission of Indigenous language and knowledge between generations occurs through socialisation into livelihoods and related social and cultural activities. As such, customary beliefs and practices in relation to boats and sea spirits endure among the Sama-Bajau, and are primarily oriented to ensuring return on fishing effort. Sama-Bajau small-scale fisheries (SSF) across insular Southeast Asia therefore present a highly relevant case study. We will explore the dimensions of social wellbeing in the Sama-Bajau context and identify how the Sama-Bajau have responded to endogenously developed and exogenously induced drivers. Utilising our collective experience of Sama-Bajau society in diverse locations across Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, we will discuss the parameters of continuity and transformation in the Sama-Bajau way of life. The case study offers the opportunity to explore how historical and contemporary drivers have contributed to the variability of Sama-Bajau social welfare, spatially and temporally.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is estimated that around 6000 members remain and their language, Moken, is threatened. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/mwt [Accessed 20 June 2013]. See Anderson (1890); Ivanoff (1985); Sopher (1977), for information about the Moken. The more sedentarized elements of this population, found largely on the coasts and islands just south of the Mergui Archipelago, are also known as the Moklen. The differentiation of more sedentary and more migratory subpopulations follows the pattern of Sama-Bajau elsewhere in the archipelago, as sedentary Sama have been differentiated from Sama Dilaut populations in the southern Philippines and Bajau Tempatan or Bajau Darat from Bajau Laut in Sabah.

  2. 2.

    According to Chou and Wee (2002) population data on Orang Laut are lacking as they are not officially counted in government statistics. A northern group of Orang Laut, the ‘Urak Lawoi’, inhabit offshore islands and coastlines in Thailand just south of the Moken-Moklen region (Sather 1995). For more on Orang Laut in Indonesia, see Chou (2003), Chou and Wee (2002) and Lenhart (2002).

  3. 3.

    The Sama-Bajau languages make up a discrete sub-group of Austronesian languages within the Western Malayo-Polynesian language family originally described as ‘Indonesia Bajaw’ by Pallesen (1985). There are ten Sama-Bajau languages and numerous dialects (Pallesen 1985). The Sama-Bajau language spoken in Indonesia appears to be closely linked to the Southern Sama language spoken along the coast of Sabah, on its offshore islands, and in the Sulu Archipelago of the southern Philippines (Sather 1997). In Indonesia, there is only ‘small divergence on a dialectal level’ (Verheijen 1986, pp. 26–27).

  4. 4.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/humanplanetexplorer/environments/oceans (accessed 11 October 2014).

  5. 5.

    Recent price fluctuations in the global shark fin trade have had an impact on the extent to which sharks are being targeted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

    Natasha Stacey

  2. Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

    Dirk J. Steenbergen

  3. The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Julian Clifton & Greg Acciaioli

Authors
  1. Natasha Stacey
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  2. Dirk J. Steenbergen
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  3. Julian Clifton
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  4. Greg Acciaioli
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Correspondence to Natasha Stacey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Derek S. Johnson

  2. Department of History, Politics and Social Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

    Tim G. Acott

  3. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

    Natasha Stacey

  4. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    Julie Urquhart

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Stacey, N., Steenbergen, D.J., Clifton, J., Acciaioli, G. (2018). Understanding Social Wellbeing and Values of Small-Scale Fisheries amongst the Sama-Bajau of Archipelagic Southeast Asia. In: Johnson, D., Acott, T., Stacey, N., Urquhart, J. (eds) Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries. MARE Publication Series, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60750-4_5

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