For centuries they have lived in the ocean, diving and fishing, rarely setting foot on land. They only do it to exchange fish for basic foodstuffs, such as rice or water, build new boats or bury their dead. They are the Sama-Bajau, a Malay people who live in floating houses and sail the Joló Sea, between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, whose nomadic life is being threatened by government programs that force them to settle on dry land.
Persecuted and stigmatized, known as sea gypsies, they are the only humans adapted to the marine environment. They have longer arms and have developed a larger spleen than the terrestrial population, which allows them to do thirteen-minute apneas and descend up to thirty meters deep to hunt pelagic fish or search for pearls and sea cucumbers.
The Maritime Museum of Barcelona dedicates an exhibition to them, Sama-bajau. Nomads of the sea, in which, in addition to photographs, he shows some of the pieces from his own collection, such as two traditional Filipino boats made of a single piece with a hollowed-out trunk, which take us back to the origins of navigation and shipbuilding. The exhibition can be visited until March 17.
