Welcome to The Island of Sea Women! Here you can dive into the world of the Haenyeo—from the years of occupation to their modern survival. Just click through these tabs to explore their journey.

But first, here are three of Lisa’s favorite pieces…

The sea women of Jeju

For centuries, female divers on a South Korean island have made their living by harvesting seaweed. The women, some in their eighties, talk about a tradition that could soon be consigned to the past READ MORE

Elderly Haenyeo Divers

Hardy Divers in Korea Strait, ‘Sea Women’ Are Dwindling

HADO-RI, South Korea — On a recent morning, as she has for 60 years, Kim Eun-sil carried her diving gear to a rocky beach on the eastern side of this island to spend the day free-diving in water more than 20 feet deep to harvest seafood by hand. READ MORE

Lisa’s Trip

People

Places

Stone Museum

Haenyeo Museum

More Jeju

Culture

The Traditional Village Shamans of Jeju Island, South Korea: Photo Essay

The shamans of Jeju Island, South Korea, like other shamans across Asia, are village priests concerned with the physical and spiritual well-being of their community’s residents. These shaman, called shimbang, also serve in leadership roles, helping to settle disputes and organizing rituals. Traditionally, the position of shimbang on Jeju Island is inherited through family lineages, both females and males being selected by their parents. READ MORE

Haenyeo

Documentary: 12 year old Korean Haenyeo Diver in 1975

This film documents a day in the life of a 12 year old Korean girl, learning to dive as a haenyeo on the island of Jeju. This novice diver is of the last generation that will engage in this vocation, and serves as an important historical document.

Diving with the last generation of Korea’s Mermaids by Heidi Shin

I’m on a boat with a group of Korean grandmothers—but it’s not a cruise ship and there’s no shuffleboard in sight. It’s a motorboat and these elderly ladies are sporting wetsuits and goggles. They’re in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, and they’re about to jump into the ocean with what look like small garden hoes in hand. READ MORE

Haeynyos preparing for their dive. Commerical fisheries have largely emptied the waters so the divers have to travel further out to find their catch.
Haeynyos preparing for their dive. Commerical fisheries have largely emptied the waters so the divers have to travel further out to find their catch.
After the dive, the haeynyos swap their dive masks for floral sunhats.
After the dive, the haeynyos swap their dive masks for floral sunhats.

The Haenyo Community

Haenyeo Diving

Bulteok

Sea Women Documentaries

A film by Mikhail Karikis
A film by Mikhail Karikis
A film by Elly Park
A film by Elly Park

Jeju

Map of Jeju

Field Notes From Korea by Steph Rue

Persimmon Dyeing at Mongsengee

Persimmon-dyed bags, hats, table runners, scarves…
Persimmon-dyed bags, hats, table runners, scarves…
Persimmon sock dyeing
Persimmon sock dyeing

Climb the Halla Mountain

Trail to Hallasan begins
Trail to Hallasan begins
The top of Hallasan
The top of Hallasan

Traditional Five-Day Market

Jeju’s “Five-Day Market” occurs every 5 days and contains an array of goods–from food and clothing to various household supplies. The photos in this slideshow below were captured by Lisa on one of her visits to Jeju.

Part One – Caught by the charms of Jeju

Written by 2008 Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. G. Le Clezio

History

Jeju Massacre – KBS News

Tuesday (NB, april 3, 2018) marks the 70th anniversary of the Jeju massacre of 1948, a deeply significant tragedy in modern Korean history.

Korean War, a ‘Forgotten’ Conflict That Shaped the Modern World

The Korean War has been called “the Forgotten War” in the United States, where coverage of the 1950s conflict was censored and its memory decades later is often overshadowed by World War II and the Vietnam War. READ MORE

A House Divided: Photos From Korea’s 1948 Yeosu-Suncheon Rebellion

Two years before the Korean peninsula erupted in a civil war that saw the North and the South (and the U.S., the United Nations, the Soviet Union and China) engage in a conflict that shaped the post-World War II world, a short, brutal rebellion in the young Korean republic paved the way for the cataclysmic Korean War to come. The Yeosu-Suncheon Rebellion, as it came to be called, took place in October 1948, when communist rebels — many of whom had been in the American-trained Korean Army — revolted against the (authoritarian) government of President Syngman Rhee. READ MORE

Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Jeju 4.3 Peace Park

A gallery from Lisa’s trip to Jeju’s Peace Park

More on Jeju’s Peace Park