Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
After a six-hour drive on the island of Sulawesi, my colleague Adi Renaldi and I arrived at the entrance of a village in the middle of a secluded cove.
From there, our water taxi — a motorized wooden longboat — took us down a narrow waterway, where we saw mangroves thriving in the murky saltwater. As our boat rounded a corner at sunset, the village of Torosiaje came into view, with its colorful stilted houses perched over the Molucca Sea.
Southeast Asia's Indigenous Bajau people are historically known as nomadic sea fishers. Many in Indonesia now live more settled lives along the country's coastlines, but Torosiaje is unique — it was founded in 1901 and built on the water. The sea lapped below as we walked across bridges connecting the village's houses, shops, and schools.
The people in Torosiaje recognize how important mangroves are to their livelihood and survival. We came here to talk to the head of the conservation efforts. By cultivating mangrove trees, the Bajau have been able to bring back fish whose habitats had dwindled and protect the coastline from erosion. We learned about their traditional uses of mangroves, using seeds to make soap, medicines, skin care, even flour for cakes.
The origin of the Bajau is not exactly known. One legend says that a sultan's princess was kidnapped, and he sent his strongest men to search for her. They didn't dare return without the princess, so they wandered the seas as nomads, and the Bajau here made a new home among the mangroves.
See more Far-Flung Postcards from around the world:
- Greetings from Syria, where a postwar olive harvest offers a long-lost taste of home
- Greetings from an Islamabad park, a peaceful vantage point in an uncertain world
- Greetings from Nairobi, where taking a matatu is no ordinary bus ride
- Greetings from downtown Cairo, where unpretentious cafés are part of centuries-old charm
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