Seafaring Nomads Settle Down Without Quite Embracing Life on Land

Leaving her hut that hovered on stilts above crystal blue water, Zausiyah got into her boat at sunrise and rowed out to sea, looking down into the clear water for fish.

When she found a choice spot, she stored her paddle, baited four hooks and tossed her line down into the deep waters of the Molucca Sea in Indonesia.

Sometimes the hooks came back empty; other times she caught four fish in one throw.

“Fishing is the only thing we, the Bajo people, know,” sighed Zausiyah, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “I started fishing when my husband went blind. I’m tired, but this is our only way to earn a living.”

Before noon, she was making her way back home, her hut one of a dozen dotting these waters, off the east-central coast of the island of Sulawesi. Wooden boats bobbed beneath each home, where shellfish hung down by string and sea cucumbers were scattered on the decks, drying in the scorching sun.

Zausiyah paddling in her canoe.