Batjala (ˈbat͡ʃala)

"Many ships have a few of the Batjala aboard - they are excellent sailors, and they like to go see the world."

— Izar Ibarzabal

The Batjala are a Human ethnicity who live on the island of Gurri in the Southern Region. They are most closely related to the Tāngata and Tui Iti peoples, but this relationship is quite distant. Gurri is far from the normal trading routes, with only a few visitors every year. Many Batjala spend a decade or more as sailors of the Great Ring during their young adulthood, before returning to Gurri to settle down - these wanderers bring back tales and foreign goods, and keep remote Gurri from being too isolated from the other islands.

Physical Appearance

The Batjala are known for their tall and athletic builds, standing several inches taller than most other Human ethnicities. The average height of Batjala men is 5'11", while women are an inch or two shorter. Their skin is dark brown, and they have dark eyes and straight black hair.

Common Dress & Style

In everyday life, the Batjala have little use for clothing - the climate of Gurri makes most clothes uncomfortable, and they will normally wear a simple skirt of bark cloth and nothing else. More elaborate clothing is worn for special occasions. Instead of heavy clothing, the Batjala prefer a variety of personal adornments, such as jewelry and headdresses. These are made locally from shells, feathers, and bone. Sailors also bring home jewelry from their voyages, and a typical Batjala will have a collection of local and imported accessories they wear every day.

Both men and women among the Batjala wear their hair long. Braids are common, often with jewelry incorporated into the braids. They also like to dye patterns such as stripes into their hair, arranging the result into a pleasing display. Men will often have beards, although they rarely let them grow very long.

Batjala will also decorate themselves with paint, drawing patterns that indicate their family, marital status, and personal interests. Young men will also have ritual scars on their shoulders and chest, which they receive during their muhlgarr ceremony upon becoming an adult. These scars are shaped into ritual patterns indicating their lineage, and may be accented with paint after they have fully healed.

Social Structure

The Batjala are divided into clans, known as ngooroong, each of which claims a certain territory on the island of Gurri. Each clan has a patron spirit that is anchored to a natural feature within their territory, and is usually featured prominently when they paint their backs or chests. A clan is made up of many families, and marriages are always made across clan boundaries. Kinship between the clans is very important, and children can often state the clans their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were born in.

Leadership within each clan is based on experience and expertise, with the elders in each clan making most of the decisions by consensus. On any particular subject, there is usually an individual who is considered the most knowledgeable, and the entire clan will defer to their judgement in this area. When conflicts arise, the elders of the clan will meet to discuss and pass judgement, and their word is considered final. Elaborate rituals of apology exist, and an offending party may be required to provide a service to the community or to a specific person to atone for their misdeeds. In very rare instances, the elders may choose to exclude a person from the community, denying their relation to them and forcing them to leave the clan's territory. They do not practice execution, although some who have been excluded are killed if they violently resist their expulsion.

Religion & Folklore

The Batjala believe that the land is filled with gods and spirits, known as the Ngura. Each clan and person will have a patron among the Ngura - a spirit who guides and protects them during the course of their life to the best of their ability. A Ngurii will typically manifest as a plant or animal native to Gurri, and it is important that you never harm or eat the creature that your Ngurii has chosen to be. This prohibition extends also to the Ngura associated to your clan, or the personal Ngurii of your mother or father.

Each of the Ngura has a day of the year that is sacred to them, when those who are connected to a particular spirit will celebrate and honor their patron. Clans will have large festivals on the day of their clan's Ngurii, and the entire island of Gurri will celebrate the days devoted to Gurriyara (the Ngurii of the island) and Mundu (the Ngurii of the seas around Gurri).

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Main Article: Buralgi

The Batjala speak Buralgi, a language which is distantly related to Tāngatāiki.

Foods & Cuisine

Batjala cuisine depends heavily on the sea and features fish, seaweed, mollusks, and turtle eggs. One popular dish is sand-steamed clams - the shellfish are wrapped in wet leaves and grass, and then buried in sand that was heated in a fire. The clams steam inside their shells, and are considered essential to any feast.

From the island itself, the Batjala will harvest palm nuts which can be processed into sweet flour, yams, fern roots, berries, and honey. However they rarely hunt the animals of the island itself, as most are connected to one of the Ngura, and it can be complicated to track who can and cannot eat a particular dish when they are included. As a result, it is often simpler to avoid them altogether, and they will usually be hunted only in times of need.

Languages spoken

• Buralgi

Related Locations

• Gurri

Meko the General

The most famous person ever to come from the Batjala was Meko, a general in Hundaru of Telmun's armies who went on to found the Kingdom of Lampuato. The Mekongga people take their name from Meko, and he is still revered among them today. You can read more about him here.

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