 Chris is a traditional pearl diver from the Aru
Islands in southeastern Moluccas in Indonesia. He has been in this trade for
the past 7 years. Almost everyday, Chris and his fellow divers go to the sea in
search of pearl oysters, a very sought after mollusc of Aru's thriving pearl
farming industry.
If he is lucky, he would go home with about 2-3 of
these mollusc after an entire day of diving. Otherwise, he would have no income
for that day. Most people think that pearl divers like him must be enjoying the
affluence that is usually associated with this expensive gem. But for Chris and
other traditional divers like him, their living conditions are far from the
lustre of these precious pearls.
His village Marlassy is a remote hilly community built
on a vast bed of fossilised coral North of the Aru Islands. But it is one of
the main centres of Indonesia's lucrative pearl industry. However the villagers
here do not enjoy electricity and piped water and they travel in fishing boats
from one island to another.
As most of the people in Marlassy are engaged in the
pearl diving work, their livelihood is literally dependent on the Chinese
merchants who collect their catch and sell them to the nearby big pearl
culturing farms. History of pearls
Throughout
history, human beings have always regarded pearls as priceless gems. Hundreds
of years ago, knights believed they possess magic to protect them from harm.
The ancient Egyptians buried their dead together with their pearls. In ancient
Rome, pearls were a status symbol for the rich and status.
During the
Renaissance in Europe then, some countries even passed laws forbidding ordinary
people to wear pearls except for the nobility! At one point in history, pearls
had greater value than the diamond. In the eastern parts, pearls were ground
into powder and believed to be a cure for anything from heart diseases to
potency.
Value
of pearls
There
are essentially three types of pearls: natural, cultured and imitation. A
natural pearl is formed when an irritant such as a tiny grain of sand gets into
the shell and the oyster tries to cover this irritant with a fluid. And after
several years the constant secretion of this liquid will form the pearl inside
these oysters. But it is very rare to find a natural pearl.
That’s
why the process of pearl culture was developed where humans induce this
irritant into the shell and wait for about 3 years for the pearl to be formed.
In this process, it is said that after a 5-10 year cycle, only about 50% of the
oysters will survive. Out of this figure, only about 5% can be considered of
acceptable quality for the top jewelry makers.
The art of pearl culture was
invented by a man named Kokichi Mikimoto in Japan in 1893. Until today, the
Japanese are considered the foremost experts in seeding oysters and the
Mikimoto family continues to be one of the largest pearl producing empires.
But
two definite factors to assess a pearl for its value and price are its luster
and size. For example, the Japanese Akoya cultured pearls are some of the most
lustrous and a necklace of 40 such pearls measuring 7mm in diameter could cost
between $1,500 to USD4,500. (Y165,000 – Y495,000)
In
comparison, the South Sea pearls of Australia, Myanmar, and Indonesia are less
lustrous but they are more rare and larger, with diameters of 10 to 20mm. These
pearls are far costlier for instance, a 16-inch strand of white South Sea
pearls could be sold for between USD$40,000 to USD$50,000. (Y4,000,000 –
Y5,000,000)
Organisations such as the World
Pearl organization, Cultured Pearl Association, Japan Pearl Promotion Society,
and Australia’s Licensed Pearl Producers have ongoing awareness raising efforts
to inform the consumers with information about pearls and how they are priced.
They are very concerned that uninformed buyers could actually create confusion
in the market price of pearls.
According to the world record, in
1992, the highest price paid for pearls was a necklace made of a 17-inch strand
of 23 cultured pearls embedded on 60 round diamonds. It was sold at London’s
famous auction house, Sotheby’s for a price of US$2.3 million! (Y253,000,000)
Japanese
interests in Indonesia
Today the foremost producers of
pearls are Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, India, Philippines, and
Tahiti. Japan controls roughly 80% of the world pearl market, followed by
Australia and China respectively. Many pearl producing countries export their
pearls to Japan, where they are sold to retailers around the world or sold to
consumers in Japan. Only around half the pearls sold in the Japanese market
actually came from Japan.
South Sea
pearls culturing was established in 1920 by Dr. Sukeo Fujita, a veteran of the
Japanese Akoya pearl industry, who started in the Celebes (Sulawesi), an island
in East Indonesia. However,
during the World War II, this culture activity was transferred to another
country in the Pacific.
In 1963, several Japanese companies
started pearl culture again but this time in Buton Island. In 1969, a certain
Japanese company invested US$1 million dollars into starting a pearl operation
in Aru Islands in the Moluccas province.
By the early 1990’s about 28 major pearl
operations was already established along the coast of the northern and eastern
Aru islands, most of them Japanese and Chinese owned. In mid 1990’s Japanese
investors had spread their interests in the pearl culture industry only in the
province of Maluku, but also in Southeast and Central Sulawesi (Celebes), West
Nusa Tenggara, Lombok (Eastern Indonesia) and Lampung (Sumatra). But since the
violent conflicts erupted in the Maluku & Sumatra provinces in 1999, some
pearl cultivation has shifted to other parts of Indonesia.
Problems caused by the pearl culturing operations.
The over-exploitation of the pearl culturing business has created an
alarming loss of these special wild mussels and their natural habitat. As a
result many countries have passed laws to protect these resources but its
strict enforcement is still difficult.
In Indonesia a critical issue is the control over
ancestral and traditional land of the local inhabitants of these islands and
their seas. Most of these companies try to influence local villagers to secure
a lease to their communal lands and marine resources in order to be able to operate
their pearl culturing activities there.
In Aru Islands, there are agreements signed about
15-25 years ago between village leaders and these investors that are quite
ridiculously in favour of the companies. For instance, one village leader
shared that his father who was the former village chief had signed an agreement
with an investor allowing them to operate on their land & sea for 10 years
for a small fee of only RP10 million (USD4,500 at the exchange rates of that
time).
Local villagers who used to fish freely are now
prohibited from fishing or even passing nearby the pearl farms along the
coastal areas. "We are treated like thieves because when we travel a
little too near the pearl breeding sites, armed men in speed boats shine
powerful torches into our faces and rudely chase us away," Chris the
traditional diver said.
The Moluccan People react
Today, after years of being exploited by the pearl
industry, villages are finally awakened to their unjust situation. Recently,
several communities are beginning to revive their traditional customary
"Sasi" laws which have very strong emphasis on conservation of their
natural resources of the land and seas.
The Sasi laws are traditional customary laws of the
indigenous Moluccas people which can be used to prohibit certain natural
resources of their customary land from being harvested. And if anyone caught
breaking the Sasi law will be penalised and fined by the communities.
"We, the customary councils of different villages
have to cooperate to check this alarming situation and protect our sea and land
resources from being drained by these industries," said Mr.Demi Djubumir,
village head of Marlassy community. Mr.Djubumir and his community have decided
not to renew the agreement made between his village and some pearl operations
some 10 years ago.
As such communities such as Marlassy have already
started to educate their people and starting to seek alternative income
generation activities such as cooperative fishing, farming and other trade.
This way the people will not have to continue feeding the pearl culturing
business with the oysters and destroying their own natural resources in the
near future.
“If we continue to depend on the pearl industry for
our livelihood, our lives will suffer more hardship in the coming days,"
Djubumir said.
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