GENERAL   INFORMATION

            Kei islands is an archipelago, part of South East Maluku distric, in the spice islands of Maluku. The district, lies between 131º-135º east Longitudinal and 5º-7ºSouth Latitude. Kei islands cover the Kei islands sub district, which consist of 101 islands where only 17 Kei islands sub are inhabitted; and Kei Besar islands sub district, consists of 110 islands where only 3 islands are inhabited.

            Tual, the capital of the South East Maluku district, is also the capital of Kei kecil sub district. Tual is located on Dullah, kei kecil (known locally as Nuhu Roa) and Fair islands, are interconnected by two bridges, Watdek bridge and Fair bridge in Kei kecil subdistrict. Elat, the capital of the Kei besar sub district is located on Kei Besar islands. The main towns on Kei kecil and Dullah islands are, respectively Langgur and Tual.

            Kei kecil islands are almost a low land area and flat, with average altitude 115m above the sea level, white the largests island, kei Besar island is mountainous along the island with 500-800m of height and “Dab” as the highest peak.  According to 2000 cencus, the total population of Kei island is 107.935people, live in Tual city it self and spreading in 79 villages of Kei islands.

The people of Kei islands, belong to Kei race, which is very tightly to their tradition. Some villages in Kei besar islands is home to many original Bandanese people, who fled the Banda islands during colonial times.

ECONOMY

            Because most of the south east maluku area is sea, the district has a huge of fishery and other maritime pruduct potency. It is the only major resource in the the Kei islands. Hundreds of motorized fish boats only go along the coast line.  Large fish caught on the reefs and exported alive to singapore and hongkong have their status symbols served at Banquest or expensive restaurants. The fishery port in Ngadi, Dullah islands serve also export fishery vessels. The district and the people earn the most from the trade and export of fishery and other maritime products.

            Most of kei people on the little islands are very specialized in making their own traditional vessels, tecnically known as Prahu Kalulis, a light weight elegant sailing hull which they used for sailling to the main islands.

            The Kei Besar islands has also forest potency, but not so much as before when Alfred Wallace explored the Kei islands. Alfred Wallace, a naturalist first saw the Kei in 1856 from the deck of a large trading prahu in his explorer journey to the more remote Aru islands. Wallace is famous in the context of the “Wallace Line” named in his honour as the devising between the Fauna of Asia and Australia. When he entered kei besar islands, Wallace knew, that he was on the threshold of unknown territorry for any naturalist, where bo other collector had managed to get close look at the animals and plants of the islands. He wrote “I was in new world and could dream of the wonderfull production hidden in those rocky forest.”

            In 1996, the spice voyage was made to ridescover wallace explorer usigng the same type of prahu would have been available to wallace in 1856. they calculated that about one – third of kei besar’ s forest cover, remained as it had been in walace’day. Mots of the timber has been cut, but the old art of boat building is still carried on at kei besar.    Coconut dominated the people ‘s plantation now, baside root plants which is most cassava, for local consumption.                           

                                                                  SUCIO CULTURE  

The human settlements are located along the coast ,so that most of the people live as fisherman and tradional dry land farmers. The people along the coast still preserve their original forms of customs, “sasi” especially to sustain the standing stock and quality of the maritime products and protect the environment. If the stock reach a certain size and volume, which is feasible to be harvested according to the related regulation, then the people is allowed to harvest. Traditional fines are levied when some one trespasses the “sasi”.

The people’s staple food is “ambal” , cassava dried cake, sold in a veriety of sahpes. The ambal is very popular, and one can get nice cuisine and taste if the anbal is taken combined with a fish dish. Because the islands are small coral islands, during the lowest tide called “meti kei”, some islands could be linked together, and the people, most woman and children seeking for hours, the sell fish for their consumption or dried to be sold.

The people of kei islands have several social relationship, based on the genealogic, marriage relationship and on certain agreement among the villages. Genearogic relationship rules among others is the rule that the younger most obey the older ones in the family even the older in their clan. The female family member is the honor symbol of the family, so that if one of the female member is hurt, the male member will give prompt reaction to protect their sister. It’s said, that a kei young man, will always protect their land and the honor of his sister with their own life and prossessions. Marriage relationship rules, is almost to set a culture oerder among the families and even family members who become in relations due to the marriage, while most of the relationship among the villages is to help one another in the society especially in facing the difficulties.

The kei people have their original form of clans in their culture which are known as ursiw (nine clans), lorhim (five clans) and lorlabay (the neutral clan). These three clans are based on lor as a totality which is based on their customary law, larvul ngbal. Lavrul Ngabal has very strong norms, which regulate the social relationship among, moral ethichs and justice among the people in kei islands. Larvul means red blood and Ngabal means spear. Any one who does contrary to Larvul Ngabal rule, will be level according to his or her trespasses.

In kei culture, the people is devided into three stratas. The higest strata is Mel-mel (aristocrat), Ren-ren (midle strate) and Iriri (the lowest strata). Mel-mel strata is devided into seven levels. The first until third levels, of Mel-mel are believed to have the power and capibility to become their tradition or customary leader. They are diligent, honest, rich and brave. The forth until the seventh level are lower then the first ones. Ren-ren is devided into three groups. The first, are the land owners or those who have the power ro decide the land use, the second, who have the responbility to conduct the cultural ceremony; and the third, who has no role in the society. The lowest strata is Iriri who is actually subordinate to the other two stratas, usually appointed as redemption to Mel-mel or ren-ren. Ren-ren is actually also Mel-mel, but their capability is lower, not like Mel-mel. Although Iriri is the lowest, the other two stratas have to protect and to take care of them. The culture of Kei islands is very unique and attractive to be studied by anthropologists.

 The  sources of data from Maluku Provincial Tourism Office - Ambon