On Jeju Island, off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula, the haenyeo—women who free-dive without breathing equipment to harvest seafood—have sustained coastal communities for generations. Today, as the number of divers declines and the community ages, the knowledge carried in their language, gestures, songs, and everyday practices is at risk of disappearing.
This project documents and studies the language, communication, and cultural knowledge of the haenyeo, exploring how their ways of speaking, signalling, and working together reflect a distinctive maritime heritage shaped by cooperation, resilience, and deep ecological understanding of the sea.
