JEJU WEEKLY

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CommunityJunior Journalist
Mothers of Jeju
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[This article is written by a JDC Junior Journalist. The JDC Junior Journalist program is an educational project sponsored by Jeju Free International City Development Corporation (JDC). JDC Junior Journalist articles are only briefly edited by mentors before publishing.]

There are women who pick shellfish in Jeju, widely known as Haenyeo. They are a famous tradition specialized in Jeju, which is also trying to become an intangible cultural asset, too. However, the tradition is disappearing and graying. People started thinking that if we keep letting this situation go, the Haenyeo may disappear and nobody will remember them in the future. Thanks to the government’s help, Aqua planet Jeju was established. Today, hundreds of thousands of people visit Aqua planet every year, and they can learn more about the Haenyeo, especially how they hard their work is by watching their working process.

Lee Han Yong, the chairman of Haenyeo culture rescue, said that he’s very happy about what he has done since 2008. He first started his work through an interest in swimming and diving. While searching for information, he said he found that haenyeo women are most specialized at diving and decided to attend the haenyeo school. After the whole course of studying, he noticed a shocking fact: that haenyeo had no special skills or physical advantages for diving. Their strong body which feels light even when they are diving in winter or can reach 20-25m at age 75 is all based on their mother's instinctive love. He showed respect and described haenyeo as the mother of Jeju. But then he started to worry about the mothers because their average age increased rapidly to 62. Now, Jeju people have less of an interest in haenyeo than the mainland people, they are even popular to foreigners. He said being a haenyeo might not be a bad choice because the government is giving support,a special diving suit for example, and people can live as a intangible cultural asset. “It might be cool, right?” He said. He said he understands the indifference and he used a Russian proverb to explain, “Because we are used to it, people live near beach can’t hear the sounds of the waves”. He, however, emphasized that becoming a haenyeo is a possible route just for Jeju people. We need to be aware and preserve our precious culture, our grandmothers’ story, which is presumed to have started in prehistoric times.
We can clearly see that haenyeo culture is slowly disappearing in Jeju. We are not recognizing it because we are very used to it now, most of Jeju people's relatives are haenyeo, but they will disappear. Our children might never know about it because there will be no Hanyeo left, and no one can tell them about the Hanyeos history because we were not interested in, and we don't know. Even it is old, we can't just let it go. It's a very important part of Jeju, not just as a historical or cultural meaning, but we should remember our tough mothers who took any risks for their family.

¨Ï Jeju Weekly 2009 (http://www.jejuweekly.com)
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