2024 - BE A STAR — Reborn in
The Form of Light

The Bajaus are a Southeast Asian people who live in the seas between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Most of them live by diving for fish and are considered the last of the sea nomads. Often referred to as the ”Gypsies of the sea”, these ancient maritime nomads had a well-developed maritime trade and subsistence fishing industry.
The harsh living environment has not affected the optimistic attitude of the Bajau people. The Bajau get up early each day to start the day’s ”sailing” and fishing, while the children dive in the sea around the boat. However, with the shortage of marine resources, the Bajau people made homemade gunpowder in the sea to catch fish. In addition, they learned to use cyanide, which greatly damaged the marine environment.
The Bajau people spend their whole lives in the sea, and the poor living conditions result into a short life span, with an average age of only about 50 years. When they died, the sea did not accept them, and they had to return to land for burial, and their migration made it difficult to pay tribute and remember the dead.
We want to design a poetic burial for them, where the dead will become stars, as they are said to be, with their families and communities.
We bury the ashes of the dead Bajau in special containers. Under the effect of sunlight and sea water, the surrounding area of the container will increase the density of plankton and bacteria due to the decomposition of ashes, attracting the sea fireflies that fed on it. Fireflies glow blue at night because of the sea water, and from a distance, the container looks like a star in the sea, as if the return of the dead. Because the Bajau live in shallow seas, the dispersal of ashes will provide nutrients to the seafloor’s seagrass beds, providing food and habitat for marine life, and forming a sustainable, circular marine ecology. On the other hand, it is also a cyclical life process.