Abstrack:
The Bajo people are the maritime ethnic group who live spreadout through South East Asian waters, including in Indonesia. The Bajo were formerly known as the sea wanderer, sea nomads, or sea gypsies, because of their sea nomadic life with their traditional boats. However, almost all of them now are living in sedentary communities. They build their settlements in shores or atolls, but still above the sea water, and not on the land. Their life cannot be separated with the sea, and are always attached to the sea. Because of their maritime way of life, therefore, the Bajo are also known as the sea people. The maritime way of life of the Bajo is a unique way of life, which fascinates and invites curiosity to the others to know and explore more on their life. At the same time, this curiosity becomes an opportunity for other parties to introduce and sell the uniqueness of the Bajo to wider market. Commodification of the Bajo culture then arises as a bridge to connect both sides. This paper focuses on the Bajo community who live in Wakatobi Islands, and describes the commodification of the Bajo culture, either by Wakatobi regency government or by other private parties, for the sake of tourism and other interests. The form of commodification of the Bajo culture is capturing their cultural activities and exposing them in several media, and then distribute the result to the public or sell them to wider market. The commodification activity done by Wakatobi regency government is producing documentary film on the Bajo, and distribute the film to the public for tourist promotion. The Wakatobi regency government is also sponsoring the performance of the Bajo traditional ritual, duata, to the public as performance art and tourist attraction. The making of documentary film on the Bajo is also done by private televisions and broadcast it as public consumption. The other form of commodification done by private parties is producing merchandise with Bajo cultural theme and selling them as souvenirs.
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