Scattered throughout the Sulu Archipelago live the Sama Dilaut or Badjao, a people nobody wants. The Badjao are known to other tribes living in the same area as palau or lumaan, both meaning godforsaken.

Historically, they were a highly mobile people that lead a nomadic lifestyle which depended upon the bounty of the ocean and the use of key resources on land in order to survive. From a vibrantly rich sea-nomadic lifestyle, the Badjao have been reduced to beggars, dragging their babies and children under the sweltering heat of the sun or the merciless pouring of the rain in the streets of cities all over the Philippines.

In a country where people scramble to have a share of the remaining crumbs of resources left by the cancer that is corruption, the Badjao have no crumbs left at all to scramble for.

Zamboanga, Philippines (2007)