Thirteen-year-old Osama, a member of the Philippine Bajau ethnic group, proudly follows his father, Jaji, out to sea to dive for fish. With his makeshift goggles, he plunges into the water, trying to keep up with his father, who sinks like a stone to the bottom, where he expertly shoots a fish with a homemade spear gun.

On these ocean outings, Osama hones his swimming and diving skills, aspiring to one day provide for his family as his father does. His mother and younger brother watch with pride as Osama’s breath-holding and deep-diving abilities improve. Despite being only five years old, Osama’s younger brother already knows how to climb out onto the arm of the boat to grab the fish as their father surfaces.

In the evening, the family returns to their shack on stilts, perched over the tide pool. On days when they don't fish, Osama attends a one-room school in the maze of wooden shacks connected by gangplanks that make up the Bajau community on Palawan Island, Philippines. About fifty students of varying ages share the single classroom, with attendance often spotty as many miss school to accompany their families on fishing trips. The weather forecast predicts rain for the next day, so school attendance is expected to be high.

Roughly 500 miles away on Surin Island in Thailand, 25 Moken sea nomad children are running from their one-room school, stripping off their uniforms, and jumping into the sea. Their teacher explains that this happens several hours a day, and he has learned to teach according to the schedule of the children and the tides, as these children also need to help their fathers catch fish.

Conundrum

Governments worldwide have yet to find an ideal solution for their indigenous, aboriginal, nomadic, and minority communities. Excluding these groups from the modern economy and denying their children access to education is a humanitarian failing. However, taking children away for education is equally problematic, as it deprives them of the skills and desire to maintain their traditional way of life.

Forcing nomads into permanent dwellings to provide them with government services risks undermining their culture, just as offering monthly welfare checks would. Transitioning seafaring people to low-level labour jobs on land is not an improvement and would similarly erode their cultural identity. Even teaching children to read and write the national language could be the first step toward erasing their traditional culture.

As the debate on how to address the needs of traditional communities continues, the encroachment of the modern world into their historical territories threatens to make their traditional livelihoods impossible within a few years, leading to the loss of their culture. This is the situation facing Southeast Asia's sea-dwelling minorities.

For thousands of years, Southeast Asia's sea nomads — often called "sea gypsies" — have navigated the waters between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. This diverse group, comprising roughly one million maritime hunter-gatherers from various ethnicities, including the Salons, Moken, Orang Laut, Bajau, Sama-Bajau, and Duano, live, forage, and fish off the coasts of islands such as Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and the Sulu Archipelago.

They face growing threats from overfishing, pollution, tourism, scuba diving, and government policies that disregard their culture. As modernisation and environmental degradation encroach on the marine environment, the unique cultures and way of life of these sea nomad communities are increasingly at risk.

Diverse cultures

The Salons are one of Burma's smallest ethnic minorities. They travel the country’s Mergui Archipelago along the southern coast and range as far as the Philippines, Borneo, and Thailand. Known for spending most of their time on boats called kabang, they live offshore, fishing for sustenance and rarely interacting with land dwellers. The names "Salon", "Saloun", "Salone", "Salum", and "Salong" are all used by the Burmese junta to describe this group, though they call themselves the Moken.

In Burma, the name "Saloun" appears in official documents, while "Moken" is used in official Thai records to distinguish the Thai Moken from the Burmese Moken. Like all ethnic minorities in Burma, the Salong suffer from the long-running war, but unlike others, they have never formed their own government, institutions, or resistance army.

The Thai Moken spend most of their lives on thatch-roofed wooden boats, primarily in Myanmar's Mergui Archipelago and along Thailand's Andaman Sea coast. Their language, of Austronesian origin, includes many Malay words and significant vocabulary borrowed from Thai. Traditionally nomadic, the Moken live on their kabang boats during the dry season and move to land during the monsoon. They rely on the sea for their livelihood, practising sustainable fishing and gathering.

The Moken have a rich oral tradition, passing down stories and myths through generations. As animists, their beliefs centre around spirits of the sea and land. Their unique boat-building techniques reflect their belief systems, folklore, and spiritual symbolism.

Orang Laut are found in the Riau Archipelago and other parts of Indonesia, as well as in Malaysia and Singapore. Historically maritime nomads, many have now adopted a more sedentary lifestyle. Skilled fishermen and navigators, they once served as guides and defenders for the Malay Sultanates.

The Orang Laut have a hierarchical social structure and a strong communal identity, practising a blend of animism and Islam with rituals tied to the sea. Their traditional knowledge encompasses boat building, fishing techniques, and navigation.