Members of Ekspedisi Maritim Timur Nusantara (Maritime Expedition to the East of the Archipelago) have shared their experience of sailing to 16 islands in Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua on a traditional boat.

In 2015, a team of photographers, videographers and researchers took part in the Maritime Expedition to the East of the Archipelago, a month-long sailing journey that led them to discover not only the natural charm of eastern Indonesia, but also the struggles of its people.

Some of the expedition team members gathered in a discussion at Galeri Indonesia Kaya in Jakarta on July 2 to share stories from their expedition. The discussion was one of the fringe events of the Jakarta International Photo Festival (JIPFest), held from June 25 to July 9 in several places across the capital.

The expedition, initiated by the Tukangbesi Islands Foundation and the Wakatobi regency administration, followed the ancient sailing route of a sailor tribe on Buton Island in Southeast Sulawesi.

The expedition team started its journey from Wakatobi Islands in Southeast Sulawesi, visited a dozen islands in Maluku and Papua and ended its journey on Buton Island. In total, 16 islands were visited.

Behind the scenes: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) researcher Veda Santiadji (second left) and photographers Andi Imam Prakasa (left), Prabhoto Satrio (second right) and Andi Ari Setiadi take part in a discussion as panelists at the Jakarta International Photo Festival (JIPFest) at Galeri Indonesia Kaya in Jakarta.(Image courtesy of JIPFest)

The team made the journey on a traditional boat that first set sail in 1973 under the navigation of local fishermen.

“The places the voyage led us to were not tourist destinations,” said Andi Ari Setiadi, one of the expedition photographers.

Andi said they faced many technical challenges in documenting the journey as many of the islands had limited access to electricity.

“We had to take turns to charge our equipment. We had to bring batteries, smaller cameras, underwater cameras, lots of plastic bags. We had to really think about [the execution] beforehand,” he said.

The team members spent most of their time on the sailboat. During their visits to the islands, they stayed in locals’ houses.

Despite the challenges, Ari said that through the journey, they grew a tremendous appreciation for the local fishermen, who managed to tame the turbulent seas with their traditional sailboats.

“There is more suffering than happiness,” a fisherman says in a 15-minute documentary on the expedition, following daunting footage of a rocky boat wrestling against stormy seas.

The documentary, titled Pesan Dari Buritan (Message from the Deck), highlights the issue of water pollution, with a clip of a fisherman asking the government to address the issue of plastic waste floating in the sea.

Story from the sea: The Maritime Expedition to the East of the Archipelago published three photobooks of its journey. One of them, Pesan Dari Buritan (Message from the Deck), was published in 2017.

Pesan Dari Buritan has been nominated at 15 national and international film festivals since being released in 2015.

Aside from the documentary, the expedition is also documented in three photobooks: Ekspedisi Maritim Timur Nusantara (Maritime Expedition to the East of the Archipelago) in 2015 and Menatap Halaman Timur (Staring at the Eastern Yard) and Matahore, both published in 2017.

“My advice for everyone here who hasn’t been on an expedition is to go on an expedition,” World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) researcher Veda Santiadji, part of the expedition team, said.

“Believe me, experiencing an expedition will leave you with exciting dreams for this nation. You will experience a newfound curiosity for what could be [if regions were more developed],” he added.

The festival’s head of fringe events, Yusni Azi, said the photobooks signified the power of photography in showcasing Indonesia’s rich culture and beauty and raised awareness on specific issues.

“We saw an opportunity in that we could use photography as a tool to raise public awareness on serious issues happening in the country,” Yusni said.

“We wanted to showcase how photography could be used as a means for serious storytelling, be it personal or journalistic.”

On the dock: Children stare out at fishing boats in the distance.

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

— Photos courtesy of Ekspedisi Maritim Timur Nusantara