People ask this all the time.

Buka Buka Island is uninhabited, in this way that nobody has a permanent residency there.

And there is no village established on the island.

But Bajau people has been living on and off there to farm coconuts, which is the main source of income of locals here.

So when you come, you can meet with them and see how they make copra on the island.

As part of our contribution to the local community, there are a few things we aim to help with:

1) Giving jobs to them so they get extra income than farming coconuts (which is hard work and low paid).

Whenever we can, we offer locals first to help us with: cleaning, building, fishing, etc.

Price is directly negociated with them and we always pay them fairly.

2) Bringing new jobs and business opportunities so they can diversify and not only depend on coconut farming.

Such opportunities include bringing guests around the island, teaching their traditional way of fishing, making alternative products, etc.

This will be possible after we open Reconnect, but we already prepare ideas and ways to do this.

3) Protecting and empowering nature.

This is the most challenging, because of the total lack of education on the matter, and we need to build a trust based relationship with locals so they even want to open their mind.

We need to start with the basics, and help them to stop: throwing trash in the sea, burning plastic, fishing endangered species, damaging corals, etc.

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All of this needs to be done in such a way that it grows as a mutually winning relationship.

It’s not as simple as showing them facts and saying: “here’s what’s best, now you have to do it.”

Everything needs to respect locals culture and traditions, it’s all about compromises and mutual understanding.

We need to keep in mind that we are guests here, and let go of the colonialist mindset so many expats have when establishing in Indonesia.

It’s not “us versus them”.

It has to be “us together with them”.

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Pic by Lærke.