We Are What We Eat: Borneo
(Part 5 of 7) Matthieu Paley photographs the Bajau of Malaysia, who fish and dive for almost everything they eat. Some live in houses on stilts over the water; others live in boats where they sleep, fish, and cook.
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Transcript
I went to look at the oceanic diet people that live off the
ocean. And for this I ended up going to Borneo. Borneo is split into three
countries Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia. I went to the Malaysian part. This part
here in Bodgaya Island. So, I went and met with the Bajau. About one million
Bajau split over all these countries I mentioned. And they really live off what
they find in the ocean.
Bit of refreshment to get you in the mood. This is Tarumpit,
you know, on his way to the office. And, so they live on stilt houses mostly. And
it's quite an incredible experience walking into one of these house. There's
the lapping, you know, sound of the water. People sometime fish straight through
the planks like this. There's water right below. But the real hardcore Bajau. They
are called the Bajau laut, from the ocean. They live in boats, handmade boats
called lepa. Lepa-lepa or lepa. And this is their life. This is where they give
birth, this is where they cook, this is where they do everything. This is it. They
live inside there, they sleep in there, they spend all their life in this. Moving
around, yeah, semi-nomadic, kind of. They go around islands finding spot where
they hunt, they fish, they gather food. And they cook in the back of the boat
in this metal thing. Fire straight on the boat, I wouldn't do that. But you
know, it works.
They sometime cut out seaweed in small pieces boil it in
salty water and eat it. There is a lot of collagen in it. It's really good for skin
apparently. And then when the tide gets low in the full moon period they go and
gather seashells etcetera. They even find these little guys here. Urchins. They
collect a lot of urchins. And eat the roe inside.
I love these kind of stories, of this kind of destination nothing
can be pre-arranged. There's no way to reach out to these people, you just have
to be lucky. And so you are on the lookout all the time for stuff. And so I am
going around in the boat in the morning and we see this guy. Let me show you what
he is doing. With his hand he is going forward like this. He's got one foot out
with just one fin. And he's scanning the bottom of the ocean looking for food. And
then soon enough he got an octopus. And then you know, later on, he got
stingrays and a lot of effort is put into that again four-five-six hours at sea
trying to get some food to bring back. There's a connection between the body and
the food that feeds it and fed the body. And here again you see that. You see
the octopus is clinging onto him and he's got that close to him like that.
I was trying this was... one thing I kept in mind on that
story. To really get that connection, that intimacy with food. Food is
something you eat that gets in your body that makes you live, I mean it's just
incredibly powerful thing when you think about it. So, I meet with the brother
from the guy that was hunting with... Put on his skinny jeans and he's just so
at ease in there. - It's just amazing. And he got this little fish, this little
bat fish there.