The Bajo’s Vanishing Language of Nature
The reputation of the Bajo tribesmen as masters of the sea may soon vanish. Global change has made the weather increasingly unpredictable. Their special gift in reading nature’s signs may no longer be relevant, given the sorry state of our environment, which has ruined the language of seasons, the direction of stars and the course of the winds. Yet, when they go off to sea in search of their livelihood, these are the only compass they can rely on. And the once-rich harvest of the oceans slowly have declined, pushing the Bajo more inland, to live in settlements along coastal areas. How many more generations of the Bajo can sustain their mastery of such marine knowledge? A special report from South Sulawesi in this week’s Tempo English Edition.
October 27, 2010
IN Mekar village, Soropiah district, Konawe regency, Southeast Sulawesi, lives Haji Razak, renowned in the area as a “reader of nature signs.” He can predict when it will rain and how long the weather will be bright. He knows wind and wave conditions like the back of his hand.
Old man Razak is just one example of a member of the Bajo tribe known to be extremely intimate with the environment and fluent in the language of nature. This experti
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