The Makassar people are rich in culture and they are acknowledged for their traditional culinary and maritime knowledges, together with the Bugis, its closest related ethnic group.

Almost all Makassar trade activity was recorded as one of the important historical inter-native relationship and businesses of ancient times (especially with the Aboriginal Australians and several Oceanian natives).

Meanwhile outside of Indonesia, the diasporic Makassar community could be found in Insular Southeast Asia and its vicinity (such as Australia, Thailand, etc.

This is exemplified by the Kingdom of Gowa (14-17th century), which succeeded in forming a vast Islamic empire with a large and strong naval force.

The term Makassan (or Macassan) is generally used to apply to all the trepangers who came to Australia, although some were from other islands in the Indonesian Archipelago, including Timor, Rote and Aru.

Fishing fleets began to visit the northern coasts of Australia from Makassar in southern Sulawesi, Indonesia from about 1720, but possibly earlier.

[10] Ganter also notes that for some anthropologists, the extensive impact of the trepang industry on the Yolngu people suggests a longer period of contact.

Arnhem Land rock art, recorded by archaeologists in 2008, appears to provide further evidence of Makassan contact in the mid-1600s.

[12] At the height of the trepang industry, Makassans ranged thousands of kilometres along Australia's northern coasts, arriving with the north-west monsoon each December.

Makassan perahu or praus could carry a crew of thirty members, and Macknight estimated the total number of trepangers arriving each year as about one thousand.

[13] The Makassan crews established themselves at various semi-permanent locations on the coast, to boil and dry the trepang before the return voyage home, four months later, to sell their cargo to Chinese merchants.

[14] Marege' was the Makassan name for Arnhem land, (meaning literally "Wild Country") from the Cobourg Peninsula to Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Kayu Jawa was the name for the fishing grounds in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, from Napier Broome Bay to Cape Leveque.

[17] The trade continued to dwindle toward the end of the 19th century, due to the imposition of customs duties and licence fees and probably compounded by over fishing.

The main source of income of the Makassar is rice farming; however, they are also famous throughout Indonesia for their skill in trading and as fishermen.

According to Antonio de Payva, Portuguese trader and missionary from Malaccas, that had some success converting some Bugis kings from Ajatappareng, when a Portuguese missionary tried to convert 14th Gowa king, I Mangngarangi Daeng Manrabbia, he was reluctant to change his ancestral faith and will invite Malay priests to compare both religions first.

According to the text Lontarak Patturiolonga, under the rule of 11th Gowa king, Tunipalangga, these traders were allowed to practice Islam and had special privileges.

Facilitated by Sultan of Johor, they learned from Wali Songo of Java before eventually arriving in Somba Opu harbour in early 17th century.

[23] There are similarities of Islam with native practice of Dewata Sewwae in Luwu Kingdom, which was considered the spiritual center in South Sulawesi.

On west coast cities such as Makassar, Maros, and Pangkep, there are coastal areas directly adjacent to rice fields.

Coastal areas of South Sulawesi are important producers of fish, with ponds on the west coast filled with bolu (milkfish), sunu (grouper), shrimps, and crabs.

Several notable figures centered in Gowa Regency that refused to surrender like Karaeng Galesong, migrated to Central Java.