Cultural survival often requires traditions, rituals and rites of passages, but sometimes it can depend on none of those. Sometimes simple existence is nothing more than a constant hand-to-mouth struggle: the ever-present search for food. What happens when that struggle takes place in a boat? Every day you live, eat, breathe, procreate, defecate and socialize entirely in a small boat or small ocean stilted hut – 24/7, 365 days a year. This is the life of the famous ‘Sea Gypsies’ (Sea Bajau). They belong to no country; their allegiance to the sea. It is said they originate from the Philippians but have calling the waters of Borneo home for over 200 years. Beautiful yet dangerous, the ocean waters surrounding this area are highly contentious, a haven for pirates and pillagers. In April 2000, pirates kidnapped 21 persons, dive instructors and guests, from Sipadan Island itself. Today military bases dot every coastline, patrolling the waters to secure a fragile peace.
Poverty-stricken, the Bajau have large families. The more workers the better when the game is daily survival. 12+ people share one room stick huts that poke from the ocean floor like spindly legs on rickety tip-toe. Les will learn how to make shelter of braided palm leaves and machete shorn wood, find fresh water, catch sea cucumber learning the dangerous art of compression diving, and examine life in an area of the world where starfish aren’t your friends, sea urchins rule the ocean floor, and jelly fish leave more than a sting.
With award winning, never before seen ceremonial and survival footage, Les Stroud crafted this stunningly beautiful and compelling series about connecting to the earth through survival and ancient ceremonies with indigenous cultures around the planet.
Directed By Les Stroud
Starring Les Stroud
