Vol. 5 · No. 2 · 2001 · pp. 67-88 (22)
Orang Suku Laut Communities at Risk:Effects of Modernisation on the Resource Base, Livelihood and Culture of the 'Sea Tribe People' of the Riau Islands (Indonesia)
Lioba Lenhart
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The Orang Suku Laut or 'Sea Tribe People' of the Indonesian Riau Archipelago are one of several mobile fishing and foraging communities of maritime Southeast Asia who have often been referred to as 'sea nomads'. Today, only a few of the Orang Suku Laut still follow an entirely nomadic way of life. The majority lives in coastal settlements, where some still turn seasonally to boat-dwelling, while others have completely abandoned boat nomadism. The process of sedentarisation was hastened in the 1990s, during the late Soeharto era, by ambitious government programmes for the region's economic development and special projects of directed change conducted amongst the Orang Suku Laut.