documentary 64min (75 Min final version) 2025 Malaysia / Indonesia

 

Their stilt houses are burnt down, their boats destroyed: indigenous people like the sea nomads in Malaysia are denied citizenship and passports as they are disenfranchised as stateless people. But centuries of history and the graves of their ancestors on the Malaysian islands are proof of their roots.
As stateless people, the children of the sea nomads are not allowed to attend state schools, so artists and activists have founded schools in the stilt villages. But the students are repeatedly arrested and harassed.The film portrays three Bajau Laut communities and their activists fighting for basic rights: in Tetagan, Omadal and Semporna.
The activists help the indigenous community to raise their voice and create new hope for the sea nomads.

 

Chapter 1 – Roots
Roof of Leaves: Tetagan village
Portrait of the sea nomad village of Tetagan before it was destroyed. Bidan, a midwife, preserves traditional birthing practices, while Nasiri, a healer and fisherman, reveals the community’s deep spiritual bond with their ancestral land. In harmony with nature, the stilt houses are still built using natural materials. Tetagan embodies the very roots of Bajau Laut culture—a living cultural heritage. The weaving of Tebo mats uses pandanus leaves, the pandanus tree is an incarnation of the Lady of the Forest, the highest deity alongside the Lord of the Sea. Pacik Khalid, a seaweed farmer and pioneering activist who arrived 17 years ago, established the village’s first school for stateless children. Ancient myths of the Bajau tell how the sea nomads founded the first settlements on the east coast of Sabah, a princess in search of refuge. But the restless search for sanctuary never ends.

 

Chapter 2 – a shelter for how long?
Tin Roof – Omadal village
The island of Omadal is a sea nomad village of the next level, where sea nomads of different origins mix, most of the stilt houses have tin roofs.   “First the female jinn enters the body, then the male spirit,” explains a custodian of the spirits, while cooking sea shells, “more and more spirits come”. A young student-teacher from the stateless community shares how his father was deported for lacking documents. Amid the village stands a bright yellow house: Iskul Omadal – a vibrant school project for the stateless children of a next generation of activists that points to the next chapter. The school kids emerge from the sea, climb on the school platform, engage in all kinds of learning activities and begin to dance to the music of Pangrok Sulap.

 

Chapter 3 – Iron in the Fire
Semporna
Semporna is the capital of the region, with large stilt-house villages of over 30,000 people on its seaside. Long walkways over the sea through the maze of stilt houses lead to the Borneo Komrad School project in Bangau Bangau, where teachers and students tell of being stopped by the police or arrested simply because they were born stateless. In nearby Air, Borneo Komrad students have launched their own alternative university, aspiring to become community leaders. Their peaceful strategy for change is through education, community work and art. Woodblock prints, inspired by Pangrok Sulap, form part of their creative expression. The collective itself is later visited in their Kinabalu studio, completing the philosophy of peaceful, emphatic community work.
Meanwhile, Pacik Khalid, the activist from Tetagan, is preparing as an artist for the Lepa Festival in Semporna. He is also a theatre director, choreographer, costume designer and is deeply involved in Bajau Laut culture at all levels.

 

Final Chapter
June 4 2024 – massive raids on Bajau Laut – the last indigenous villages in the Marine Park get destroyed. The final chapter returns to a devastated Tetagan village in ruins to meet one last family to record their testimony,
“Our work is even more important now,” comment the film’s pioneering activists.
The closing scene: Graduation day at Borneo Komrad.
With tears in their eyes, students sing:
“Education for Freedom.”