cat vinton is in search of the worlds remaining nomadic souls

cat has just returned from her latest trip - living on the andaman sea.

the mysterious mergui archipelago, some 800 islands, in the forbidden myanmar waters of the andaman sea and to the south, the surin islands, in the thai waters of the andaman sea, is a world that belongs to the moken. a self-sufficient nomadic sea culture of austronesian people.

their nomadic life is spent wandering around the islands as hunter-gatherers; they are the sea gypsies, floating nomads, living on ancient-designed, roofed boats called kabangs. these elusive people are born, live and die at sea.

cat found the last family who still live most of their life on the waves, around the surin islands, where the jungle meets the white sand that meets the clear turquoise water that finds the free soul. these wandering sea dwellers let cat into their world and shared with her some of their soul...

from cat’s diary, living with the moken, january 2009…

‘it was incredible to live with this moken family... i found their nomadic free spirit, their lack of a routine, their knowledge of the sea and the jungle, their love of nature, their raw energy, their smiles and their hearts. i observed a beautiful way of life that has an intimate relationship with the sea, enriched with laughter, sing-song chatter and the noises of the jungle. the rhythm of the nomadic moken.’

they still lead a traditional seafaring and spiritual life full of myths and tales, harvesting the sea’s bounty with harpoons, hands and nets. on the islands they have spirit poles ‘lobong’, bearing the faces of supernatural beings who protect them. the moken have incredible underwater vision, it is twice as sharp and they can see twice as far as ‘us’. the moken children can swim before they  can walk..

the moken philosophy focuses on pride in the face of scarcity. kabangs symbolize the ownership of nothing – a formalized ‘letting go’ – these use identical scroll designs on the bow and stern to illustrate the digestion mouth-to-exit process that holds onto nothing permanently. This sapient design also announced to pirates through the centuries, ‘we have nothing to steal’
they have no word for ‘want’ or ‘take’ or ‘good-bye’ they have no need for these words or for a knowledge of their age.

“the moken are the soul of these islands and waves, the expression of a world that has begun to fade and is in danger of being engulfed by modern society. my hope is that the rains continue to come and go, so too will the moken, from the sea to land and back again’ jacques ivanoff.