Today forest exploitation is accelerating with the presence of a plywood factory, to which one must add the collecting of damar (Agathis) and the opening of wide roadways. Their clove tree orchards are disappearing, depriving swidden cultivators of their source of cash income.
Ethnic groups
|
population
|
territory
|
villages
|
density
|
| Alune
, W. Seram
|
15.000
(1987, SIL)
|
27
|
||
| Manusela,
E.Cent. Seram
|
3.500
(1986, SIL)
|
30
|
||
| Seti
|
5.000
(1983, SIL)
|
8
|
||
| Bobot,
E. Seram
|
5.000
(1987, SIL)
|
|||
| Masiwang
|
800
(1987, SIL)
|
|||
| S.
Wemale (Tala, Honitetu)
|
3.726
(1987, SIL)
|
28
|
||
| Nuaulu
, C. S. Seram
|
1.256
(1990)
|
1885,05
km2
|
1,5/km2
| |
| Total
island population
|
247.375
(1993)
|
They lived inland as hunters, gatherers, sago extractors and gardeners until they moved to the coast in the late 19th century, but they continued exploiting the ancestral forest though not as much as previously.
They live in Amahai sub-district, central-south Seram, in the Sepa's territory on the coast. Their language belongs to the Austronesian family, but they also use others : Sepa, the local lingua franca, Ambonese Malay, lingua franca in the central Moluccas, and Indonesian for those who went through school, the national language.
They have had to put up with transmigration villages created along the Ruatan and Nua Rivers : between 1976 and 1982, 1425 households were settled there, of which 56 are Nuaulu households.
Dual habitat
They live in permanent villages (25 to 200 people) and in field huts (39 huts for 25 households, ELLEN, 1978 : 143). They also have temporary camps while hunting or extracting sago. The means of communication are roads and paths. The distance between the different settlements can be anything from 0,03 to 50 km. The village can only move with government permission.
Land tenure
Traditionally, distinct territories are recognized together with ownership at clan and occasionally individual level, but there are no marked boundaries ; the latter are maintained by mutual respect. Rights to clear the land belong to the clan, family and individual, serially.
The Nuaulu have historical ownership over a stretch of land starting 5 km from the coast, i.e. a territory of about 1670,3 km2. They extract sago from the swamp forests that cover 214,75 km2.
Socio-political structure
The residential unit is the extended family and community structure is based on the clan. Each clan is divided into two sections, each with a headman. Decisions are made by the clan headmen and the council of male initiates, to which one must add nowadays the village headman who is designated by the government. The Nuaulu live in territory belonging traditionally to the Sepa who are the subjects of the local Raja in a region that has been incorporated within government administration.
Religion and the forest
Animistic rituals and the cult of the ancestors are intimately linked with many places in the forest (e.g. the sacred mountain Nunusaku). The religious leaders are mediums, diviners, the clan headmen who also have a religious role, and a few other religious specialists (e.g. the guardians of sacred houses). The 'Lord of the Land', the head of the clan Matoke, is primus-inter pares amonst clan headmen ; he has special responsibilities for use of forest land and resources (ELLEN, pers. comm.).
Swidden agriculture
The first crops planted are the Colocasia and Xanthosoma, then yams (4 varieties) and taro, then again bananas, sweet potato and sugar cane, and manioc. They also grow chilli peppers, eggplant, peanut, millet, tomato, papaya, tobacco, marrow, Celosia. Nowadays they also have cash crops (cloves, coconut, coffee).
Mountain rice was never important and irrigated rice was only introduced recently by the transmigrant populations over 300 ha in the Kairatu area.
In a garden : 60% of crops are tubers, 20% vegetables, 15% fruits, 5% non-edible plants.
90% of swidden land is cleared on fallow land and secondary forest (bamboo thickets) within a radius of 4 km around the village. Plots are cultivated for a minimum of 3 years. This invalidates the claim that swidden agriculture destroys the forest ; 70% of gardens in Rohua locality are on steep slopes (35%), but erosion is nevertheless weak ; the soil is loose and bigger and longer tubers can be grown in it. Average size of a swidden garden is 0,40 to 0,90 ha ; 40% of fields are more than 2 km away from the village.
Permanent agriculture only applies to cash crops.
The forest is deteriorating and turning into secondary forests, bamboo thickets and even grassland. People were made aware of the reduced availability of arable land in south Seram by the precipitated settlement of transmigrants on land along the Nua and Ruatan Rivers, and by spontaneous in-migration along the south coast in the Nuaulu area (ELLEN, pers. comm.).
Hunting, gathering and fishing are very important activities.
They hunt 20 different species : small game (phalanger, cuscus, civet) and large game (deer, wild pigs, cassowary, python, monitor lizard). Hunting is carried out on an individual basis, except for rituals when a large group is involved. They use bows, spears, traps and dogs. They hunt on abandoned gardens, in sago swamp forests, orchards, secondary forest and less in primary rainforest or mountain rainforest.
They breed dogs, cats, fowl, ducks but consume little, though fowl are used for rituals.and dogs for hunting. There is now some cattle.
Gathered foodstuffs : sago, kenari nut, many fruits, ferns. Some animals such as frogs and larvae are caught.
54% of sago is obtained on the big palm reserves (46 km2 of swamp forest, 16 km away from the village -a 6 hour walk- where the Nua and Ruatan Rivers meet). The regeneration of the sago occurs naturally and it has a higher flour content than the sago growing near the villages : 300,04 g (more than 1056 cal/day/adult) instead of 256,2 g (i.e. 901,8 cal/day/adult). This is because they are cut down before the tree reaches full maturity. 2 or 3 men are needed to fell a tree in the forest.
Other forest products include construction material, rattan, and bamboo.
They fish regularly though as an activity it is less important than hunting or gathering : they usually fish in rivers or along the coast (bows, spears, basket traps) and at sea (bows, spears, nets, pirogues).
Tools are made locally (out of wood, rattan, bamboo) except machetes, axes and spearheads that come from the outside.
Sago is the main staple food.
wild products collected /day
|
calories
/day/adult
| |
| sago
|
76%
|
1958
|
| bamboos
|
23%
|
|
| ferns,
various nuts, fruits
|
1%
|
|
| Total
|
3085
|
76% of the weight of gathered wild plants is made up of sago, and it provides 1958 cal/day/adult, i.e. 63% of total energy intake/day/adult, approximately 3085 cal (these figures apply to wet season conditions, a period less favourable for sago collecting ; during the dry season they would be higher) ; bamboo provides 23%, and then come ferns and the kenari nut ; Pandanus and Eugenia fruits provide 1%. Other foodstuffs are cultivated : manioc, banana, sweet potato, taro, yam.
Virtually all animal protein and 64% of total protein intake are provided by wild resources, but hunting requires a major effort and productivity is low. 1813 cal, i.e. more than 40% of total take per day, come from wild products. The latter are available all year round and less prone to diseases than cultivated ones. It is a stable, continuous and reliable source of food. The people collect wild products themselves or obtain them through exchanges. None are bought.
Sago starch is kept for a month and the pancakes for several years, and the kenari nut is also kept in vast quantities. Meat is dried for several weeks and kept away from the rats. These foodstuffs are not kept to palliate a seasonal shortage which does not exist, but for the big ceremonies.
Traditional medicine
Healers have a good reputation and they use many forest products. There are inventories of the plants they use but no chemical analyses.
Integration in the national and regional economy :
-increasing cash crops over the last 25 years : cloves, coconut, coffee and a little nutmeg
-collecting for trade : a little sago, rattan, wood for construction
-commercial hunting : for pets, hornbill, cackatuas, lories. The markets for these products are recent.
-seasonal work : recently, young men have started working as woodcutters, guides, roadworkers.
Political and legal context
75% of the children now attend school but very sporadically. Teaching is carried out in Indonesian, the national language.
There are local government officials who work at sub-district level in government administration and the police at Amahai (30 km away). The Nuaulu have a specific status as compared to other populations in the country. The Department of Home Affairs is in charge of them (as Orang Terasing). The state recognizes their rights over the land but makes all final decisions concerning it. These populations do not live in reserves but are encouraged to settle down in transmigration areas. The village headman is their representative. He is a civilian whose role is to give out government instructions to the people and report back to the sub-district official.
Their relationship with other populations involve Christian and Muslim villages on the coast and some populations that are still animists and live 3 to 5 km away. The markets, shops and health centres are 30 km away, the missions and agricultural posts are 40 km away. They are also in contact with merchants, loggers, immigrant farmers.
Economic context
There are strong external pressures on the environment since 1975 because of forest exploitation and agricultural development (immigrants). Conflict between Nuaulu and non-Nuaulu over land in the Sepa area has steadily increased over the last 25 years, partly as a result of immigration. Even more conflicts have occurred in the late 1980s and 1990s due to the incursions of transmigrants on to Nuaulu land in the Nua-Ruatan area (ELLEN, pers. comm.). The Nuaulu do not exploit the land unduly, but they suffer from depleted game resources in the logging areas.
Major risks : increasing immigration, discrimination in the labour market (they do not have access to government jobs), forestry, enforced modernization.
Health : high child mortality, but little malnutrition. Diseases include malaria (the main cause of death), hepatitis, tuberculosis, dysentery, pneumonia ; there are no alxohol or drug related problems.
Attitude towards change : they have a strong desire to maintain their traditional culture and ethnic identity.
[55] ELLEN, R., 1978, 1993.