The wooden houses on stilts, sturdy
and still above water, looked as if they
were plucked out from an old storybook.
Children in boats fashioned out from
whole logs of strong wood, paddled
over to us excitedly expecting treats. As
this settlement has had many tourists
visiting, this familiarity was harmless
even when we weren’t prepared to
present anything. We weren’t encouraged
to enforce this routine of giving gifts
as this particular Bajau sect needed to
preserve their independence. The tour
guide noted that while the Bajau had a
nomadic history, the rising costs of boat
parts and the tightening of international
water borders had hampered this lifestyle
rendering the Bajau to tether themselves
to an island like this one, and rely on the
barter system to keep themselves ‘afloat’.
Many have become fishermen, and have
deliberately altered their local language
with the waterfront dialects. Most were
also unfortunately deemed stateless due
to being the offspring of mixed parentage
of Bajau with Indonesians and Filipinos,
having their assumed ‘citizenships’ held as
long as they remained in Sabah waters.
We were then taken to a beautiful
sandbank known as Sibuan Island, a
picture-perfect stretch of white soft sand