The Bajo, Bajonese, Bajonesian, or Wajo, Wajonese ( bug, ᨈᨚ ᨓᨍᨚ, To Wajo; pey, Badjo; nl, Badjo, ) are the

indigenous Indonesian Native Indonesians, also known as ''Pribumi'' (), are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago, distinguished from Indonesians of known (partial) foreign descent, like Chinese Indonesians (Tionghoa), Arab Indonesians, India ...

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

native to the Bajo Island of

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

(''Nusa Tenggara'') in Indonesia. These ethnic group can be found all across the Flores Sea to the northeastern Bali Sea, and some have established permanent settlements in the southern of Sulawesi where they are locally known as the Wajo Bugis due to their close historical relation with the

Bugis The Bugis people (pronounced ), also known as Buginese, are an ethnicity—the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi (the others being Makassar and Toraja), in the south-western province of Sulawe ...

ethnic group.

Ethnonym

The

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

of Bajo people is an

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

which referring to their native origin in the Bajo Island of Lesser Sunda Islands (''Nusa Tenggara''). The term later adopted in the southern Sulawesi language of

as ᨅᨍᨚ, which literally means " he wood", referring to the material for making boats that are often used by the Bajo ethnic group to travel the sea across the Flores Sea region. In English, these ethnic group sometimes also known colloquially as the ''Sulawesi Bajau'' to differentiate it with another group in the Nusantara ( 'Indonesian Archipelago' in Old Javanese) that bears similar-sounding name, such as the Bajau people of the Bajau Island in Riau Archipelago; however, both ethnic groups might clumped together under the ''Indonesian Bajau'' terminology.

History

Genetic study and research

A genetic study of Bajo ethnic group population in three regions of Derawan Islands, Kotabaru (

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Selatan) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the smallest province in Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of Borneo. The provincial capital was Banjarmasin until 15 February 2022 when it wa ...

), and Kendari ( Southeast Sulawesi) indicates that the origin of the Bajo was from southern region of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

, this is in line with the oral tradition of the locals of Wajo Regency. The ethnogenesis of the Bajo is thought to predominantly arose in the 4th century AD when the native of Bajo Island in Lesser Sunda Islands started to migrate to northern region in Flores Sea and practiced intermarriage with the

from Sulawesi and Papuans from New Guinea. Some researcher stated that the Bajo began to migrated to the island of Borneo (known natively as ''Kalimantan'') around the 11th century AD by first settled in East Kalimantan via the Derawan Islands, and then headed to

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawak t ...

and later to southern of the Philippines around the 13th to 14th century where they are commonly referred as the '' Sama Bajau''; it is suspected that the Bajo were encouraged to migrate during the increasing influence and trading activity of the

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

-origin empire of

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

in the northern

Makassar Strait Makassar Strait is a strait between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia. To the north it joins the Celebes Sea, while to the south it meets the Java Sea. To the northeast, it forms the Sangkulirang Bay south of the Mangkalihat Pe ...

area of

Sulawesi Sea The Celebes Sea, (; ms, Laut Sulawesi, id, Laut Sulawesi, fil, Dagat Selebes) or Sulawesi Sea, of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by ...

(the Srivijayan traders who settled in the Phillippines later known as the Visayans and regarded as 'the indigenous' by the modern country of Philippines despite of its historical origin; the Philippines' municipality region of Palimbang also named after the capital of Srivijaya, which is the Palembang city in southeastern Sumatra).

Subethnic groups

According to the native Bajo sociogrouping, there are at least four classifications of society which form the sub-groups that can be classified through the way how they usually wander the Flores sea and its surroundings: * Pallibu, the Bajo who had the habit of going to sea only for a day and the distance is relatively close. They used a ''Soppe'' boat which can be driven by oars. After getting the fishes, they return to their homeland to sell their catch or enjoy it with their families. * Papongka, the Bajo who went for a week or couple of weeks to wander the sea. They use the same type of boat as the Palibu group; which is a ''Soppe'' boat. If they feel that they have obtained enough catch or run out of clean water, they will stop by the nearest islands. After selling the fish they caught and getting clean water, they will return to the sea, and the cycle will repeat continuously. * Sakkaiʼ, the Bajo who are characterized by the usage of large boat called ''Leppa'' and spent longer time in sea (at least a month or two). The ''Leppa'' boat itself specifically can even accommodate a family and the necessities of daily life while at sea, and nowadays the ''Leppa'' equipped with engines as well. However, the Sakkai are not much different from the Papongka group, but Sakkai have greater reach of 'working areas'. * Lamme, the Bajo who can be categorized by the adoption of modern techniques of fishing. They use large boats with large crews and powerful engines. They crossed the high-tide seas and even reach another countries (mostly neighbouring countries of Indonesia). And they can be in the ocean for months.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *