Hae-Nyo - Women of the Sea

Walking in the footsteps left by my grandmother's will, a voice echoed within me for years leading me to a small island in South Korea, to the Hae-Nyo, Women of the Sea. The Hae-Nyo are women who make their living free diving, gathering seafood from the ocean. While they are working in the fields, in the sea, when they are together in their dive club, laughing, shouting, chattering and gossiping, they are enveloped in a warm and embracing relationship. They have converted life's hardships into a source of feminine strength. My story is laced between Israel and South Korea, between death and the solace of working in the field, between the fear of diving and the yearning for the ocean. Three times I traveled alone to Korea, to live with these women and be a Hae-Nyo - a journey that changed my life.
Dahlia Gerstenhaber