I arrived in Australia the morning of October 6th (at the ungodly hour of 6 AM) and was greeted by my two good friends Tane and Alex. Back in December 2009 the three of us undertook an expedition to the Togean Islands, a small chain of islands nestled in the Gulf of Tomini in Northern Sulawesi. The goal of the expedition was to emulate the lifestyle of the Bajo, the sea gypsies who live in the Togean Islands and throughout much of Indonesia. The Bajo traditionally live on houseboats and on stilt-houses above coral reefs, so we borrowed a traditional dugout outrigger canoe and paddled around the island chain trying to live as they do. What we hoped to illustrate was that it is still possible to live sustainably, and that cultures all over the world have been doing so for thousands of years. One of the cornerstones of this argument was the respect that the Bajo have for the marine environment which keeps the community thriving and the reefs intact. We bought local spear guns and handlines so that we could fish exactly as the Bajo do, but what we found was an ecosystem on the brink of collapse due in a large part to modernization of fishing equipment and fishing techniques, and the introduction of mainland Indonesians to the islands. The message of the documentary we were making switched drastically – even the most remote corners of the earth were being subjected to overfishing and habitat destruction.
But how does this somber story relate to my scholarship year? One of our major sponsors of the expedition, Australian Geographic, asked us to write an article of the adventure. Tane, the expedition’s official photographer, wrote the text and provided the photos, and a few short months later our experience was chronicled in the pages of one of the world’s foremost adventure magazines. In August we all received an email saying we were being honored with the Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure award at the annual AG dinner in Sydney! And this is what brought me to Sydney on a dreary October day far, far too early in the morning.
The awards dinner was absolutely incredible. Other awardees included Buzz Aldrin and Lincoln Hall, one of the world’s most extreme adventurers. What was most important, however, is that we had the opportunity to stand up and share a message of urgency with a room full of people who were in an exceptional position to do something about it.
