Gili Air

The Turtle’s Curse

Haji Damsyiah Hussein Akbar, head of Gili village, remembers his childhood.

My grandfather was one of the first Bugis to come to this island from South Sulawesi. They made a living from fishing, planting coconut trees, sweet potato and corn. When I was small, I loved looking at the many fish and beautiful blue coral… the fish were so tame, and there were dugongs, with flippers like human hands….

Compared to nowadays, of course we have electricity and nice houses, in the old days we didn’t, but we were very happy, because it felt like our own island, there weren’t people everywhere…

The destruction of the coral was mainly caused by people dropping their anchors carelessly, also bombing for fish with dynamite, and using potassium to capture tropical fish but what caused the total destruction was the global warming. It affected all the coral, beginning in about 1989 until 1995, the temperature rose continuously, so the coral was dying. I get really sad when I remember how beautiful it was before…

When I was a boy, there were many turtles. There were people who hunted them with spears, but they weren’t wiped out because there were so many turtles. The hunters weren’t from this island–we were not allowed to disturb the turtles, it was partly a religious thing, but also a tradition. People from other islands came to hunt because here the turtles weren’t disturbed…

Since 1995, we have been trying with Ernest (owner of Reefseekers diving business) to breed turtles. If I find people in the markets in Mataram selling turtle eggs, I buy them because he wants to hatch them out, so many many of them have been released off the beach here at Gili Air.

We are not allowed to eat turtles because we believe it can cause sickness. This story proves it– once there was a person here who said “aaahh! that’s just an old wives tale, don’t believe it.”

He found a turtle that was laying its eggs, he put his hand inside the turtle and took out all the eggs and the turtle died. Now, what happened? His wife was pregnant at the time, and when she gave birth, the child had hands like a turtle’s flippers – yes!! It was a kind of curse–people believe that God was angry….

Kutukan Penyu

Haji Damsyiah Hussein Akbar, kepala desa Gili, ingat pada masa kecilnya.

Kakek saya pendatang pertama dari Bugis. Mereka mencari nafkah sebagai nelayan, menanam kelapa, ubi dan jagung. Kehidupan kami waktu masa kecil, saya dengan adik saya, asyik melihat ikan banyak, banyak sekali karang biru yang indah2, di mana2 saja… ikannya jinak ya, ada juga ikan duyung - punya tangan seperti manusia…

Kalau kita bandingkan dengan sekarang, memang ada listrik, ada rumah2 bagus, kalau dulu tidak ada, tetapi hidup kami sangat bahagia, karena kayaknya pulau sendiri, tidak ada orang banyak…

Rusaknya karang, itu pertama disebabkan oleh manusia… ada pembuangan jangkar yang tidak terarah, ada juga dulu pemboman pakai dinamit, kemudian ada juga dengan potas untuk menangkap ikan hias, tetapi yang merusak total itu pemanasan global yang menghantam semua karang, mulai panas tahun 1989 sampai tahun 1995, suhu naik2 terus, sehingga karang itu mati. Itu memang sedih, karena saya terbayang dengan keindahan dulu….

Masa kecil saya, ada banyak penyu, ada orang yang menangkap penyu dengan tombak, tapi tidak habis karena banyak. Mereka bukan orang Gili, kami tidak boleh itu, dilarang orangtua untuk mengganggu penyu, sedikit ada dengan agama kami pertama, kemudian dengan tradisi juga, jadi penyu tidak pernah bisa diganggu, ‘tapi orang dari luar Gili datang menangkap karena di sini banyak, karena tidak diganggu.

Sejak tahun 1995, kita mulai coba dengan Pak Ernest, menternakkan, ya, membudidayakan, jadi kalau saya ke Mataram, ke pasar, terus jumpa orang jual telur penyu, saya beli karena dia pesan untuk dibudidayakan. Jadi sudah banyak sekali yang dilepas di pantai Gili Air ini.

Makan penyu – itu kami tidak boleh, karena itu sudah menjadi kepercayaan – bisa sakit. Ada satu buktinya –ya, orang di sini, “aaahh!! itu cerita2 lama” katanya, “tak usah percaya,” itu penyu sedang bertelur, dia tangkap. Telurnya belum keluar, dia masukkan tangannya, dikeluarin telurnya begitu dari dalam perutnya penyu itu, sampai penyu itu mati. Nah, terus, bagaimana? Begitu istrinya sedang hamil, begitu melahirkan, anaknya pakai tangan seperti penyu – ya!! Semacam kutukan… ada keyakinan bahwa Allah marah…