Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / SMNTY Classics: The Legendary Haenyeo
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha.
- 0:07Speaker 2: I'm welcome to stuff. Never told your production of iHeart Radio,
- 0:18Speaker 2: and today we are bringing back an episode. Then I
- 0:22Speaker 2: think about kind of often actually on the legendary Hanyo
- 0:29Speaker 2: are women in South Korea who have a lot of
- 0:34Speaker 2: respect older women, specifically for diving for sea creatures as food,
- 0:41Speaker 2: and I just thought it was a fascinating topic.
- 0:43Speaker 1: It is.
- 0:45Speaker 3: Interestingly, I was watching one of my new favorite YouTube
- 0:49Speaker 3: series not a sponsor, Dirt, and they went to Japan
- 0:53Speaker 3: and there is a version of Hanyo, a woman there
- 0:56Speaker 3: who teaches them how to dive to get all these
- 0:59Speaker 3: things as well, and she is just as gruff as
- 1:02Speaker 3: the Anios, the Korean divers. So it was really interesting.
- 1:05Speaker 3: But also I discovered there's an actual restaurant named after
- 1:09Speaker 3: that in New York, which we might have to go
- 1:11Speaker 3: and check out.
- 1:11Speaker 1: They got a Michelin shout out.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Are they named after specifically?
- 1:17Speaker 3: Yes, after the women who dive in jgu Island. Also, yeah,
- 1:22Speaker 3: you and I talked about the fact that I just
- 1:24Speaker 3: recently watched it was last year When Life Gives You Tangerines,
- 1:28Speaker 3: which is a Korean drama and it starts off as
- 1:31Speaker 3: the mother, one of the main mother characters, doing everything
- 1:35Speaker 3: she can for her daughter, including keeping her out of
- 1:39Speaker 3: that field because it's so dangerous.
- 1:41Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, there's a lot.
- 1:43Speaker 2: There is a lot, So we thought we would bring
- 1:45Speaker 2: this one back and please enjoy. Hey, this is Anny
- 1:54Speaker 2: and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steffone. Never told your prediction
- 1:56Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Oh and this is gonna be a fun episode, I hope,
- 2:09Speaker 1: and a short one. But we in a very patriarchal world.
- 2:14Speaker 1: We often see women at the bottom of the social hierarchy,
- 2:19Speaker 1: economical too, all those things and left behind because it
- 2:23Speaker 1: is an assumption that women have their really just one place,
- 2:27Speaker 1: and that's oftentimes in the home, serving their husbands or
- 2:30Speaker 1: men in general. But when you look into the details,
- 2:34Speaker 1: you find some wonderful treasures in the form of stories
- 2:38Speaker 1: or legends that talk about the way women and the
- 2:41Speaker 1: marginalized community often help their community survive through the hard
- 2:45Speaker 1: times and even change the course of how we got
- 2:47Speaker 1: here today, and a lot of what we know about
- 2:51Speaker 1: the past, we get to all of that and lovely
- 2:53Speaker 1: treasures and those little groves that are like, look at
- 2:56Speaker 1: that story. We need to talk about this more and today,
- 2:59Speaker 1: we are floring one such story slash legend slash group
- 3:03Speaker 1: that still does exist specifically to South Korea. It's the
- 3:07Speaker 1: older group of women or mostly older group of women
- 3:10Speaker 1: known as the Haino, and the Haino or Sea Women,
- 3:14Speaker 1: are largely again made up of older women from the
- 3:17Speaker 1: Jju Islands in South Korea, a big hot spot for
- 3:21Speaker 1: tourism if you're on any South Korean TikTok at all,
- 3:25Speaker 1: and these legendary women are seen as some of the
- 3:28Speaker 1: most respected people of the island. Being a part of
- 3:30Speaker 1: their crew is seen as an honor today. Now, of course,
- 3:34Speaker 1: they've been around for a while, so this level of
- 3:38Speaker 1: honor came much later. So the Hanos are a community
- 3:42Speaker 1: of women free divers who work and live on Jju Island,
- 3:47Speaker 1: and we're focusing on Jju Island, but there are other
- 3:50Speaker 1: places that the Hanos have popped up or have been.
- 3:54Speaker 1: They just I guess haven't really talked about it, and
- 3:55Speaker 1: they weren't originated from there, so we will talk about
- 3:58Speaker 1: them a little bit later, but for the most part,
- 4:01Speaker 1: that's where they're located. So here's some information from Kyotojournal
- 4:05Speaker 1: dot org. They dive as deep as ten meters below
- 4:08Speaker 1: the surface without the help of air tanks or modern
- 4:11Speaker 1: diving equipment, with little insulation from the cold South China
- 4:15Speaker 1: Sea and then the A little more information from a
- 4:18Speaker 1: recent Evogue article about the Hainos and recent meaning January
- 4:22Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. The Haino, who are part of South
- 4:25Speaker 1: Korea's UNESCO Cultural Heritage Protection status, have been practicing muljiu,
- 4:29Speaker 1: the Korean word that refers to their diving activities since
- 4:33Speaker 1: at least the sixth century AD. According to records, muljiu
- 4:37Speaker 1: requires an intimate knowledge of the ocean and its physics,
- 4:40Speaker 1: as well as superior physical fitness. Divers would often stay
- 4:44Speaker 1: underwater for up to three minutes without the help of
- 4:47Speaker 1: any modern diving equipment, a feat that tests their lung
- 4:50Speaker 1: capacity and ability to fill and withstand water pressure, as
- 4:54Speaker 1: well as estimate ocean depths.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Yes, and it is within these ocean depths that they
- 4:59Speaker 2: are able to collect different foods and supplements for their
- 5:03Speaker 2: community and for their livelihoods. Here's some more information from
- 5:07Speaker 2: Heytera Travel Journal. Hanyo our sea women have for centuries
- 5:13Speaker 2: been the primary divers in Korean culture. During the sixteen hundreds,
- 5:16Speaker 2: as men were increasingly drawn away to war and conquest,
- 5:20Speaker 2: women were left behind to provide for their families and communities.
- 5:23Speaker 2: Eventually they became known as Korea's first working moms. The
- 5:28Speaker 2: reversal of traditional gender roles made Haino an outlier in
- 5:32Speaker 2: the country's traditionally patriarchal society, and diving became exclusively female.
- 5:38Speaker 2: The work these women do, I had read, is perilous,
- 5:41Speaker 2: most of them over the age of sixty. They submerged
- 5:44Speaker 2: themselves into oftentimes freezing conditions for six hours a day,
- 5:48Speaker 2: holding their breath for minutes at a time to plug abaloni, clam, seaweed,
- 5:52Speaker 2: sea cucumber, sea urchin, and squid from the bottom of
- 5:56Speaker 2: the strait. As the article states, the heyna are first
- 6:00Speaker 2: mentioned in the sixteen hundreds, when many speculate that men
- 6:04Speaker 2: were originally doing the diving as well, and they were
- 6:08Speaker 2: called into the army or had died, which left only
- 6:11Speaker 2: women to do the diving. It seemed that the ruler
- 6:15Speaker 2: at the time demanded a lot from the people, including
- 6:17Speaker 2: a tribute of delicious seafood such as abalone. There is
- 6:22Speaker 2: speculation that they also imposed a tax on men for
- 6:27Speaker 2: their earnings. Here's a bit from Oceanographic Magazine quote. The
- 6:31Speaker 2: Heino or women of the Sea, are an icon of
- 6:34Speaker 2: South Korea, a unique culture found on the island of Jaiju.
- 6:38Speaker 2: The women have been in charge of diving for seafood
- 6:41Speaker 2: to provide for their families since the seventeenth century, when
- 6:44Speaker 2: many of the men were either conscripted to the army
- 6:46Speaker 2: or had lost their lives at sea while fishing. Additionally,
- 6:50Speaker 2: the Korean ruler at that time had imposed heavy taxes
- 6:53Speaker 2: on the earnings of men but exempted the labor of women.
- 6:57Speaker 2: The folk of the island had no choice but to
- 6:59Speaker 2: be how the main breadwinners of their families. This evolved
- 7:03Speaker 2: into a system where only girls were trained to perform
- 7:06Speaker 2: the dangerous free diving work of the Haino to harvest
- 7:10Speaker 2: items such as avalony, conch, seaweed, sea urchin, and octopus
- 7:15Speaker 2: from the ocean floor.
- 7:17Speaker 1: So for many this new occupation was an empowering road
- 7:21Speaker 1: and here's a quote from sidetrack dot Com. The Haino
- 7:24Speaker 1: culture sprung up during a time when oppressive legislation was
- 7:27Speaker 1: forced upon Korean women. Women should be limited to domestic
- 7:30Speaker 1: work and the care of children. They had no access
- 7:33Speaker 1: to education, no right to inheritance. They were discouraged from
- 7:36Speaker 1: walking in public spaces. When they did, their faces should
- 7:39Speaker 1: be hidden by a veil. Divorce procedures could only be
- 7:42Speaker 1: initiated by men. Husbands could abandon their wives should they
- 7:45Speaker 1: fail to bear a male child. Unshackled and free, the
- 7:48Speaker 1: Hano have stood as paragons for female empowerment, and like
- 7:53Speaker 1: most of the World War An oppression has been a
- 7:55Speaker 1: factor with its continued decreasing of numbers of Hanos as
- 7:59Speaker 1: they are less and less them as the years go by.
- 8:02Speaker 1: So here's some more information from that sidetracked article. The
- 8:05Speaker 1: Haino reached their peak at the end of the nineteen fifties.
- 8:08Speaker 1: In nineteen forty five, the USA and USSR liberated Korea
- 8:12Speaker 1: from Japanese oppression, but began using the peninsula as a
- 8:15Speaker 1: pawn in the Cold War. The Korean people woke from
- 8:18Speaker 1: their colonial nightmare to find themselves politically divided by the
- 8:21Speaker 1: thirty eighth Parallel to the north, communist interests led by
- 8:25Speaker 1: Soviet Russia to the south, a territory aligned to capitalists America.
- 8:29Speaker 1: The Korean War from nineteen fifteen to nineteen fifty three
- 8:32Speaker 1: consolidated the former occupied zones into two separate countries at
- 8:36Speaker 1: the high cost of more than three million lives and
- 8:38Speaker 1: the destruction of their basic infrastructure. Despite its relative isolation,
- 8:43Speaker 1: JG was not spared from these hard times. Violence, unemployment, famine,
- 8:48Speaker 1: and sickness took over the island, as well as another
- 8:51Speaker 1: exodus of young adult males. However, an economic upsearch followed.
- 8:55Speaker 1: In between nineteen sixty five and the nineteen seventy, the
- 8:58Speaker 1: number of Haino dec priests from twenty three thousand, eighty
- 9:02Speaker 1: one to fourteen thousand, one hundred and forty three. Today,
- 9:05Speaker 1: only around four thousy five hundred are still active. Most
- 9:09Speaker 1: Hanos are now between sixty five and seventy five years
- 9:11Speaker 1: of age. Despite government incentives such as promoting annual festivals
- 9:16Speaker 1: and building a museum and a school for the Reno,
- 9:18Speaker 1: a few young women are willing to embrace the lifestyle
- 9:21Speaker 1: of their grandmothers.
- 9:23Speaker 2: Since then, the culture and legend of the Hainos have
- 9:26Speaker 2: gained more and more attention and revelry. In fact, the
- 9:30Speaker 2: Kyoto Journal even talked about it helping establish a semi
- 9:34Speaker 2: matriarchal society. They write, quote, the Haino have elevated social
- 9:38Speaker 2: status and in otherwise patriarchal South Korea, but it is
- 9:42Speaker 2: unclear why free diving became a female dominated profession on Jju.
- 9:47Speaker 2: Explanations range from men dying in deep sea fishing accidents
- 9:51Speaker 2: or wars, to physiological reasons, for example, women's fat reserves
- 9:55Speaker 2: supposedly making them more resistant to cold water. Historically, so
- 9:59Speaker 2: many any families depended on the income of the heino
- 10:03Speaker 2: that a semimatriarchal society developed in Jaju, it was not
- 10:07Speaker 2: unheard of for women to be the main breadwinners while
- 10:10Speaker 2: men would stay home and take care of the children.
- 10:13Speaker 2: One way in which non standard gender roles were manifested
- 10:17Speaker 2: was through the payment of dowry to the family of
- 10:19Speaker 2: the bride instead of the groom. Unlike families in mainland
- 10:23Speaker 2: South Korea, families on Jaju would wish for the birth
- 10:26Speaker 2: of baby girls rather than boys, which.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Is fun fast, fascinating and though the original divers may
- 10:33Speaker 1: have started in four hundred and thirty four AD, the
- 10:35Speaker 1: traditions and practices changed as the people who took over
- 10:38Speaker 1: change from men to more women in the seventeenth century. Historically,
- 10:42Speaker 1: the practice would be passed down from mother to daughter,
- 10:44Speaker 1: starting at the age about ten or eleven, but things
- 10:48Speaker 1: change and the numbers have changed since then, so here's
- 10:50Speaker 1: a bit more information from a Financial Times article. Traditionally
- 10:54Speaker 1: a job handed down from mother to daughter. Hanial life
- 10:57Speaker 1: has been shunned in recent decades by nearly all the
- 10:59Speaker 1: girls born in Jju's seaside villages, which have tended to
- 11:03Speaker 1: favor more comfortable lives in the islands two cities or
- 11:06Speaker 1: on the mainland. For more than fourteen thousand in the
- 11:09Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, the number of hanos have dwindled to fewer
- 11:12Speaker 1: than four thy five hundred today. So there are levels
- 11:15Speaker 1: that the Haino use for their expertise, and in order
- 11:18Speaker 1: to be a part of one, it does take the
- 11:20Speaker 1: villager's approval to get to that point. So here's some
- 11:23Speaker 1: more information from wonder Wisdom dot com. Becoming a Hanyo
- 11:27Speaker 1: also is not an easy task. A new recruit has
- 11:30Speaker 1: to earn a yes vote from every woman in their village.
- 11:34Speaker 1: It can take up to five years for any woman
- 11:36Speaker 1: to reach an expert level after crossing various levels like
- 11:40Speaker 1: sengun or novice Jungan which is middle level and Hagen
- 11:44Speaker 1: expert level. A Hagun can reach depth of more than
- 11:47Speaker 1: thirty feet and can stay more than two minutes underwater
- 11:50Speaker 1: at a.
- 11:51Speaker 2: Time and some additional information thanks to Oceanographic Magazine quote.
- 11:55Speaker 2: This evolved into a system where only girls were trained
- 11:58Speaker 2: to perform the dangerous free diving work of the Haino
- 12:01Speaker 2: to harvest items such as abalony, conch, seaweed, sea urchin,
- 12:04Speaker 2: and octopus from the ocean floor. To become a hano
- 12:07Speaker 2: is indeed a dangerous and tiring path. These women train
- 12:10Speaker 2: from the age of ten or younger to dive to
- 12:13Speaker 2: depths of up to twenty meters and hold their breath
- 12:15Speaker 2: for up to two minutes underwater. They dive with no
- 12:18Speaker 2: protective equipment other than their wetsuits, flippers, goggles, and weighted
- 12:23Speaker 2: vest or belts to help them dive deeper. Lives can
- 12:26Speaker 2: and have been lost during these dives.
- 12:29Speaker 1: Right, I think I read won article when a oneman
- 12:31Speaker 1: was talking about how in the last I think, like
- 12:34Speaker 1: ten to I don't want to say five, maybe five years,
- 12:37Speaker 1: maybe ten years, they had lost fourteen people.
- 12:40Speaker 4: Wow.
- 12:40Speaker 1: And of course they talk about whether it's like the
- 12:42Speaker 1: pressure underneath and causing heart attacks or just losing them,
- 12:45Speaker 1: and like there's so many things. But I was like dang,
- 12:48Speaker 1: that's a for a small village, that's a lot.
- 12:50Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 13:01Speaker 1: So of course with all the traditions and dangers, they
- 13:04Speaker 1: do all of this with love and respect for their environment.
- 13:07Speaker 1: We were researching these amazing groups of women. Most of
- 13:09Speaker 1: them talked about what they do with a lot of
- 13:12Speaker 1: respect for their land and their area, and they talk
- 13:14Speaker 1: about the need of sustainability and safeguarding the ecosystem. So
- 13:18Speaker 1: Young Meet talks about it. Specifically to UNESCO, We're going
- 13:22Speaker 1: to talk more about their articles because they celebrate all
- 13:24Speaker 1: the women there. As j Juhanio, we adhere to a
- 13:27Speaker 1: small but essential rule. We avoid over harvesting. We respect
- 13:32Speaker 1: seasonal and size restrictions for marine products. For instance, during
- 13:35Speaker 1: the abaloni season, we only gather those that are at
- 13:38Speaker 1: least seven centimeters in size. Similarly, when catching conch, they
- 13:41Speaker 1: must be over seven centimeters long. If we cannot assess
- 13:44Speaker 1: their size underwater, we check after surfacing and return undersized
- 13:48Speaker 1: specimens to the sea, allowing them to grow naturally. This
- 13:52Speaker 1: approach ensures that we harvest marine products in a sustainable
- 13:55Speaker 1: manner as they continue to thrive and contribute to the ecosystem.
- 13:58Speaker 2: And beyond just being conscient of their harvesting, they actually
- 14:02Speaker 2: collect garbage in order to restore the water. Here's a
- 14:05Speaker 2: quote from goodyeworld dot com. As part of their civic responsibility,
- 14:09Speaker 2: younger Hanyo regularly dive into the sea to extract garbage, plastics,
- 14:14Speaker 2: fishing nets, bottles, cans, oyster traps, styrofoam, and other human litter. Tourism,
- 14:21Speaker 2: over development, a naval base, and plans for a second
- 14:24Speaker 2: airport also threaten their survival. In pre COVID years, soul
- 14:28Speaker 2: Jju consistently ranked as the world's busiest air route, with
- 14:32Speaker 2: an average of nearly two hundred flights per day. Unfazed
- 14:36Speaker 2: by the attention of tourists and the media for their prowess,
- 14:39Speaker 2: Hainyo views themselves simply as ordinary workers. Their propitious legacy
- 14:44Speaker 2: is best summed up by oceanographer Sylvia A. Earle quote,
- 14:48Speaker 2: if we fail to take care of the ocean, nothing
- 14:51Speaker 2: else matters. No ocean know us. We need to protect
- 14:55Speaker 2: the ocean the same way we protect the land. The
- 14:57Speaker 2: ocean is the galaxy of life.
- 15:00Speaker 1: Right And just so y'all know, there's a lot of research,
- 15:03Speaker 1: I mean, legitimate research papers based on what the Heyenos
- 15:07Speaker 1: have done and helping the ecosystem and helping to protect
- 15:11Speaker 1: the ecosystem as well as the way that they breathe.
- 15:14Speaker 1: They have actually gone out of their way to see
- 15:16Speaker 1: like what makes them so different and how they're able
- 15:18Speaker 1: to handle the temperatures as well as going underwater and
- 15:21Speaker 1: surviving without equipment like oxygen and speaking of just to
- 15:26Speaker 1: add to the hard coordinates to it, if you are
- 15:29Speaker 1: using scuba gear or oxygen, that's cheating. That's what they
- 15:33Speaker 1: told one reporter and they were like, why don't you
- 15:35Speaker 1: do these new equipments And they're like, oh, no, that's cheating.
- 15:37Speaker 1: Why would we do that? And this again our sixty
- 15:39Speaker 1: five to eighty five year old women. And it wasn't
- 15:42Speaker 1: until the seventies that they decided not to use sojungi
- 15:45Speaker 1: or muldouk sum or essentially cotton swimsuits and from what
- 15:49Speaker 1: I gather is like long, roguish type of outfits, and
- 15:53Speaker 1: they started actually wearing wetsuits to protect themselves. And with that,
- 15:57Speaker 1: I think we already mentioned, but they would have diving mas.
- 16:00Speaker 1: Sometimes they would wear fins, they would wear gloves, chest
- 16:03Speaker 1: weights and often the ones that like oh that could
- 16:06Speaker 1: cause cancer, that type of metal You sure you want
- 16:08Speaker 1: to use that. They're like, yeah, it's fine, really, just
- 16:11Speaker 1: like eh, And then a weeding hoe and a net
- 16:15Speaker 1: attached to a flotation device. And I have a feeling
- 16:19Speaker 1: that some of my K drama people have seen this.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Welcome to someone Dari I think is one that is
- 16:26Speaker 1: specifically talking about Jju Island and the Hanyos and some
- 16:31Speaker 1: like tragedy of that. And then Our Blues has them too,
- 16:34Speaker 1: and they were mean. They are a clique apparently, but
- 16:37Speaker 1: they do it because they have to keep each other safe.
- 16:39Speaker 1: They don't trust each other, then they can't do it right.
- 16:42Speaker 1: So the all these things, But if you want to
- 16:44Speaker 1: talk about dramatized versions, there's plenty out there, and there's
- 16:46Speaker 1: a lot of actually recent documentaries too, So if you
- 16:49Speaker 1: all want to a little more in depth, we'll look
- 16:52Speaker 1: at that. And with that, not just with the K dramas,
- 16:55Speaker 1: we do want to talk about some of the legends
- 16:57Speaker 1: and individual stories that were told, and also some of
- 17:01Speaker 1: the funniest things. If you want to go look this
- 17:03Speaker 1: up and just look up the Hanyos or the Korean
- 17:06Speaker 1: Sea women, you'll see all these amazing pictures. Because photographers
- 17:11Speaker 1: are so interested about this culture and they want to
- 17:13Speaker 1: preserve it to that point they understand this is a
- 17:15Speaker 1: big deal. But like these women are like, oh my god,
- 17:19Speaker 1: stop asking for my picture. I just want to go home.
- 17:22Speaker 1: I just want to count my food. Like it is amazing,
- 17:25Speaker 1: Like this is the harmonies of the grandma's that I'm like, Yeah,
- 17:28Speaker 1: that's about right. This is amazing. But the pictures are
- 17:31Speaker 1: beautiful and so interesting to just look at, so you
- 17:34Speaker 1: should definitely take a look. But with that, yes, we
- 17:36Speaker 1: do want to talk about some of the stories. There
- 17:37Speaker 1: are a few that were featured for the Yenesco articles,
- 17:42Speaker 1: and one of them was again we've already mentioned her,
- 17:45Speaker 1: young me Jong. She's a fifty five year veteran, so
- 17:48Speaker 1: not fifty five years old. She's been in the Hano
- 17:51Speaker 1: community for fifty five years, and she talks about it.
- 17:55Speaker 1: Life as a Haino has its share of challenges, especially
- 17:57Speaker 1: for women. I've faced my own difficulties. In my case,
- 18:01Speaker 1: economic hardships forced me to dive not only in local waters,
- 18:04Speaker 1: but also in places like Japan. I've dedicated fifty five
- 18:07Speaker 1: years to this profession, working tirelessly to earn a living.
- 18:11Speaker 1: It's incredibly gratifying to see our recognition and appreciation on
- 18:14Speaker 1: a global scale. Now that the culture of Jju Haino
- 18:17Speaker 1: is inscribed as a UNESCO Heritage Element, I firmly believe
- 18:21Speaker 1: that being a Haino is one of the best professions
- 18:23Speaker 1: for women, even without formal education. Personally, I didn't have
- 18:27Speaker 1: much formal education, but I take pride in what I've
- 18:30Speaker 1: learned as a Hano. I have a daughter and a
- 18:32Speaker 1: daughter in law, and my goal is to pass down
- 18:34Speaker 1: this tradition to them, to make them Hanos as well.
- 18:37Speaker 1: I'm committed to ensuring that this invaluable heritage continues to
- 18:40Speaker 1: thrive and be transmitted to future generations. And she even
- 18:44Speaker 1: talks about her own tactics in diving and says, quote,
- 18:47Speaker 1: there are no special techniques. My approach is quite simple.
- 18:50Speaker 1: I hold my breath as long as I can. However,
- 18:53Speaker 1: I emphasize to fellow divers not to push themselves too hard,
- 18:56Speaker 1: as overexertion can be life threatening. The middle lesson I
- 19:00Speaker 1: have been taught is to do what we can within
- 19:02Speaker 1: our limits, in showing safety above all else.
- 19:06Speaker 2: The UNESCO article also talked about Kim Hung m and
- 19:09Speaker 2: her story as a Haino. Quote, I decided to become
- 19:12Speaker 2: a Haino because my mother was also a Haino. After
- 19:16Speaker 2: my divorce, I found myself raising two children on my own.
- 19:20Speaker 2: Juggling work and taking care of my kids made it
- 19:22Speaker 2: challenging to provide them with the care they needed, especially
- 19:25Speaker 2: when they were sick. So I half jokingly, half seriously
- 19:29Speaker 2: asked my mother if I could join her in diving.
- 19:32Speaker 2: She mentioned that being a Hano would offer a more
- 19:34Speaker 2: conducive environment for raising children, so I decided to give
- 19:36Speaker 2: it a try. Of course, working as a heino is
- 19:40Speaker 2: physically demanding in the sea, but it gives me the
- 19:42Speaker 2: flexibility to prioritize my children's well being when necessary. That's
- 19:46Speaker 2: why I ultimately chose to pursue a career as a heino.
- 19:50Speaker 2: And she continues specifically addressing the typical question of holding
- 19:55Speaker 2: her breath underwater. Quote, The question of how long we
- 19:59Speaker 2: can hold our breath underwater is when I frequently encounter
- 20:02Speaker 2: no matter where I go. While being a Heino demands
- 20:04Speaker 2: extended periods of breath holding, it's more akin to a marathon.
- 20:09Speaker 2: Our work as divers often requires us to spend over
- 20:12Speaker 2: four hours in the sea. When needed, we can hold
- 20:15Speaker 2: our breath for more than two minutes, but we must
- 20:17Speaker 2: be cautious not to overextend ourselves. If we hold our
- 20:20Speaker 2: breath for too long, we risk losing our rhythm, which
- 20:23Speaker 2: can impede our ability to continue working underwater. Typically, our
- 20:27Speaker 2: breath holding time is around thirty five seconds or so.
- 20:30Speaker 2: Going beyond that duration can have adverse effects on our
- 20:33Speaker 2: bodies and our work, so we aim to keep it
- 20:35Speaker 2: within that range. And with all of that, she talks
- 20:39Speaker 2: about her daily routines. Quote. My daily routine as a
- 20:42Speaker 2: Jju Hano involves a combination of diving work and engaging
- 20:46Speaker 2: in cultural and environmental activities. After completing my diving task,
- 20:50Speaker 2: I dedicate time to practicing Haino folk songs, a cultural
- 20:54Speaker 2: tradition deeply rooted in my village. On days when I
- 20:57Speaker 2: don't go diving, I participate in O cleanup practices aimed
- 21:01Speaker 2: at removing debris from the sea and the coastline. In
- 21:06Speaker 2: addition to being a Haino, I approached this cleanup work
- 21:08Speaker 2: with the mindset of preserving and cleaning up our marine environments.
- 21:12Speaker 2: My village is unique because we place importance on both
- 21:15Speaker 2: our cultural heritage such as folk songs, and environmental conservation.
- 21:20Speaker 2: This splend of traditions and responsibilities keeps me quite busy
- 21:23Speaker 2: in my life as a Heniu.
- 21:25Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're going to talk about those songs in
- 21:26Speaker 1: a minute. But before that, nothing will slow them down,
- 21:31Speaker 1: not even giving birth. So here's one story from a
- 21:34Speaker 1: sixty five year old veteran Hainho from huckmag dot org.
- 21:39Speaker 1: A lot of women continued diving despite health challenges or
- 21:42Speaker 1: during pregnancy, as did several of the women in Boksun's
- 21:45Speaker 1: living room, which is a person who hosts all the heinyos.
- 21:50Speaker 1: Kimsunja sixty five year old even gave birth while she
- 21:53Speaker 1: was at sea during spring. She was picking seaweed close
- 21:57Speaker 1: to the shore and suddenly her water broke and she
- 22:00Speaker 1: had no time to call somebody for help. I just
- 22:02Speaker 1: climbed up the sea toour and gave birth to my daughter.
- 22:04Speaker 1: When the others realized that I was missing, they found
- 22:07Speaker 1: me and helped me back home with my baby safely.
- 22:10Speaker 1: It was quite normal to give birth on the seashore,
- 22:12Speaker 1: she told me. As her three youngest recruits looked thoroughly surprised.
- 22:16Speaker 1: They would never be that calm, they proclaimed. The older
- 22:18Speaker 1: Haino believed they had healthy babies because they were working
- 22:21Speaker 1: in the sea while being pregnant, not a practice I
- 22:24Speaker 1: would want.
- 22:26Speaker 2: That is in tens. That's in tens, and age is
- 22:32Speaker 2: only a number. A bit more from Young me Jong,
- 22:36Speaker 2: the first veteran Haino. We were talking about quote, I'm
- 22:39Speaker 2: not the oldest among us. There's a remarkable ninety three
- 22:42Speaker 2: year old Haino among our ranks. To her and others,
- 22:45Speaker 2: I'd like to say, please take good care of yourselves
- 22:48Speaker 2: and consider stepping back from diving. We have many talented
- 22:51Speaker 2: young Haino emerging, and your contributions have been invaluable. While
- 22:57Speaker 2: I'm among the senior members, there are others who have
- 23:00Speaker 2: more years of experience.
- 23:02Speaker 1: Right. There are so many stories right after that being
- 23:04Speaker 1: like they were talking about seventy three year old woman
- 23:06Speaker 1: and there was an age she's like, oh my sister,
- 23:08Speaker 1: my older sister, she's still a Hanyo. Like they're all
- 23:12Speaker 1: talking about the fact that they continue going well beyond
- 23:15Speaker 1: I think that was one that was like one hundred.
- 23:19Speaker 4: Wow.
- 23:19Speaker 1: I'm not sure that that was the record or she
- 23:23Speaker 1: still is a part of it. Like there's so many
- 23:25Speaker 1: conversations about the fact that they didn't start till much later,
- 23:28Speaker 1: or they still continued and they don't exist anymore. So
- 23:32Speaker 1: those are the average ages, especially when they started when
- 23:35Speaker 1: they were ten, But of course this would be around
- 23:37Speaker 1: the prime time of women being a part of this community.
- 23:41Speaker 1: The camaraderie within the Hanyo community, it's inspiring and it's
- 23:44Speaker 1: something they passed down to the younger generation of Hainos.
- 23:47Speaker 1: Here's another quote from the UNESCO article. The Hanino community
- 23:50Speaker 1: operates as a close knit group. Skilled divers may catch
- 23:54Speaker 1: ten kilograms of seafood, while less experienced divers might not
- 23:57Speaker 1: even reach one kilogram. However, everything is gathered together and
- 24:01Speaker 1: shared equally, whether someone had a bottleful catch or a
- 24:04Speaker 1: modest one. While younger divers may be honing their underwater skills,
- 24:08Speaker 1: they actively contribute when out of the water. This equal
- 24:12Speaker 1: sharing of earnings is a well organized system that attracts
- 24:15Speaker 1: new recruits. The younger generations appreciate being treated equally and
- 24:19Speaker 1: sharing earnings uniformly, while experienced Hano value the enthusiasm and
- 24:23Speaker 1: respect of their younger counterparts. This mutual appreciation in strengthens
- 24:27Speaker 1: our sense of community and reinforces the importance of preserving
- 24:30Speaker 1: the culture of Jju Haino as an enduring tradition that
- 24:33Speaker 1: should never be lost but passed on to future generations,
- 24:37Speaker 1: and as a part of a lot of their history
- 24:39Speaker 1: and tradition, singing and songs are a part of that culture.
- 24:43Speaker 1: Here's some information from Atlas Obscure dot com. Chua Hueikyng,
- 24:47Speaker 1: who has written extensively about Haino for decades, says that
- 24:51Speaker 1: writing the biography of a Doen, the first guardian of
- 24:54Speaker 1: Heineo's songs, was one of the most memorable experiences of
- 24:57Speaker 1: her career. The first time I heard her sing, I
- 25:00Speaker 1: remember sobs in her voice, and before I knew it,
- 25:03Speaker 1: I was crying too. She says. Haino's songs served as
- 25:05Speaker 1: practical purposes. Starting in the mid nineteenth century, Hanyo rowed
- 25:09Speaker 1: their boats to work far from Jju Island to distant
- 25:13Speaker 1: locales such as Busan, Gongwan Province, and even Japan. To
- 25:17Speaker 1: pass the time as they rode, the women sing simple
- 25:20Speaker 1: melodies in six' eight time to the rhythm of the sea.
- 25:22Speaker 1: Waves the song lyrics, varied but often women singing lamenting
- 25:26Speaker 1: the day they were, born complaining about their incompetent, husbands
- 25:30Speaker 1: and in protests of the. Government Yeah, YEAH i could understand.
- 25:34Speaker 1: That so here's the lyric from one of the songs
- 25:37Speaker 1: That i'm not going to sing BECAUSE i don't know
- 25:38Speaker 1: how to do six fight, Times So i'm just gonna
- 25:40Speaker 1: read it to. Y'all bae baying dove into the, sea
- 25:43Speaker 1: skipped the day's three meals and learned diving as a
- 25:46Speaker 1: way to be slowly saved up one coin at a
- 25:49Speaker 1: time to take a step at my husband's. Bar Tab
- 25:53Speaker 1: so sad in good the. News there's no sheet music
- 25:56Speaker 1: For heinyo, songs and a few of the nearly ten
- 25:59Speaker 1: thousand known two have. Titles sometimes the songs are called
- 26:03Speaker 1: eyodo saana because these two words appear often within the
- 26:06Speaker 1: lyrics Of haino, music but no one is really sure
- 26:09Speaker 1: what the term. Means some say yodo sana refers to
- 26:12Speaker 1: a mythical, island a fantasy haven where problems cease to,
- 26:16Speaker 1: exist or even a heavenly. Afterlife others say the words
- 26:20Speaker 1: have no meaning at, all.
- 26:23Speaker 2: And the article goes. On the songs are poems filled
- 26:26Speaker 2: with irony and, tragedy but a closer look reveals that
- 26:29Speaker 2: they are a testament to these women's will to. Survive
- 26:34Speaker 2: and these songs are still sung, today and apparently some
- 26:37Speaker 2: have tried to remix some of the, originals causing some.
- 26:40Speaker 2: Debate but one thing is for, sure the legacy of
- 26:43Speaker 2: these songs remains an important part of The haino.
- 26:46Speaker 1: Culture so what's happening Today we kind of already talked
- 26:59Speaker 1: ab but we're gonna delve a little. Deeper the artistry
- 27:02Speaker 1: Of haino has garnered more interests, recently with museums that
- 27:06Speaker 1: are dedicated to the years and years of tradition and
- 27:10Speaker 1: to the fact THAT unesco has placed them on The
- 27:12Speaker 1: Intangible Cultural heritage. List they have become a cultural and tourist.
- 27:17Speaker 1: Phenomenon and here's some more information from That Kyoto journal article.
- 27:21Speaker 1: Quote in twenty, sixteen The hena culture was assigned to
- 27:24Speaker 1: the list OF Unesco Intangible Cultural heritage due to its
- 27:27Speaker 1: unique history and the rapid decline of female. Divers it's
- 27:30Speaker 1: elevated status due to THE unesco listing has resulted in
- 27:33Speaker 1: a new tourist industry and increase protection and funding for
- 27:37Speaker 1: the women in the industry and the natural environment of the.
- 27:40Speaker 1: Island the government provides free healthcare and the necessary diving,
- 27:43Speaker 1: equipment and has opened a diving school again and a,
- 27:46Speaker 1: museum so there's. That, however while this new heritage status
- 27:49Speaker 1: has brought benefits for the, community it has made the
- 27:52Speaker 1: women into living artifacts who performed their work for tourist.
- 27:55Speaker 1: Audiences there are now places where you can pay to
- 27:58Speaker 1: watch the women dive and they're. CATCH i would be
- 28:01Speaker 1: interested in doing that BECAUSE i bet it's real.
- 28:03Speaker 2: Good i'd be interested in. It But i'm also, LIKE
- 28:06Speaker 2: i Hope i'm not.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Bothered, WELL i think as, not as you're giving. Money,
- 28:10Speaker 1: yeah that's they're cool with. That, like don't bother, them
- 28:14Speaker 1: don't come ask for pictures and, selfies just buy their. Food,
- 28:17Speaker 1: Now i'm good with.
- 28:18Speaker 3: That give.
- 28:21Speaker 1: So and from wonder wisdom dot. Com, yes the tradition is,
- 28:25Speaker 1: dying particularly as a neo generation have decided to take
- 28:28Speaker 1: jobs in, cities but The hano is still one of
- 28:31Speaker 1: the most honored and respected women on the. Island the
- 28:33Speaker 1: strong work ethic and the decisive role they have played
- 28:36Speaker 1: in society have given them international. Acclaim in addition to
- 28:40Speaker 1: The hano becoming inscribed on THE Unesco list Of Korea's
- 28:42Speaker 1: Intangible Cultural heritage in twenty, sixteen there's even The Haino
- 28:46Speaker 1: museum In. Jju, today and tourists visit this picturesque island
- 28:50Speaker 1: just to see them in. Action as One Haino MOON bokoi,
- 28:53Speaker 1: says WHEREVER i, GO i tell people That I'm hano.
- 28:57Speaker 2: Proudly there are still those who are both looking to
- 29:00Speaker 2: be a part of the tradition as well as teach the.
- 29:02Speaker 2: Traditions from gloriosport dot com. Quote in recent, years a
- 29:07Speaker 2: small number of young women have left their lives on
- 29:09Speaker 2: The korean mainland to Become, hano parting with their stressful
- 29:13Speaker 2: city careers in order to reconnect with. Nature The heno
- 29:16Speaker 2: we spoke with stressed the importance of national policy in preserving,
- 29:20Speaker 2: traditions but insisted the responsibility lies with the senior divers
- 29:25Speaker 2: to support and educate an emerging generation of divers and
- 29:28Speaker 2: teach the wisdom of the. Waters in many, Ways haino
- 29:32Speaker 2: are agents of change an invaluable source of. Wisdom their
- 29:35Speaker 2: lives depend on an intricate understanding of the ecosystem in
- 29:39Speaker 2: which they play a, Part owing to their profound respect
- 29:42Speaker 2: for the. Environment in spite of dwindling numbers of, divers
- 29:46Speaker 2: The haino represent an alternative vision for the. Future their
- 29:49Speaker 2: century long tradition is teaching a more considered approach to
- 29:52Speaker 2: fishing that might be the antidote to our, broken pillaged
- 29:55Speaker 2: ecosystem in the wake of unprecedented global environmental activism emerging
- 30:01Speaker 2: from the bottom, up the tradition Of haino is far from.
- 30:04Speaker 2: Disappearing it's evolving and taking different forms on an international.
- 30:08Speaker 2: Scale and, yeah exactly like. This the practice has spread
- 30:12Speaker 2: beyond Just. Jju their newer groups to join the legendary,
- 30:15Speaker 2: crew such as located On GoJ, island still In South.
- 30:19Speaker 1: Korea but as a populator has, grown there have become
- 30:22Speaker 1: schools that are available to train future, hano's one In
- 30:26Speaker 1: jju and one In. Kojo so here's a quote from
- 30:28Speaker 1: hukmag dot. Org the sixty nine year old who was
- 30:32Speaker 1: being interviewed for this article admitted that when she first
- 30:35Speaker 1: started to recruit new, divers she was. Skeptical hunting in
- 30:38Speaker 1: the deep is a tough and dangerous job with no
- 30:40Speaker 1: room for. Air the fishing nets moved back and forth
- 30:43Speaker 1: and can trap you quickly if you don't pay, attention she,
- 30:45Speaker 1: said confessing that she has sworn to keep the three
- 30:48Speaker 1: recruits on her boat. Safe originally From, Jju lee moved
- 30:52Speaker 1: To koj as a, child and at that time daughters
- 30:55Speaker 1: were supposed to. Work they had no choice but to do.
- 30:58Speaker 1: This she, explained it was hard to even go back.
- 31:00Speaker 1: Inside my mother kept, saying, no go, out go back
- 31:03Speaker 1: in the. Water and this is kind of her beginning
- 31:06Speaker 1: her time with The hainos, obviously as well as wanting
- 31:11Speaker 1: to teach others and then spreading. That so they talked
- 31:14Speaker 1: about what that process was for that island and how
- 31:16Speaker 1: similar it is To, jju but why it's important to
- 31:19Speaker 1: keep going and keep. Teaching so she had a lot
- 31:22Speaker 1: of wisdom for these young, recruits and yet there was
- 31:25Speaker 1: one WHO i think she was thirty four talking about
- 31:27Speaker 1: she just really fell in love with the idea of
- 31:32Speaker 1: going away from the city and doing something close to. Nature,
- 31:35Speaker 1: AGAIN i do wonder What i'm thinking that that might
- 31:38Speaker 1: have been me HAD i been In South. Korea i'd be,
- 31:40Speaker 1: Like i'm done with this BECAUSE i was born In,
- 31:43Speaker 1: seoul like Near, seoul SO i wasn't near the. Islands but,
- 31:46Speaker 1: DAMN i don't. Know THOUGH i don't like the creatures.
- 31:48Speaker 1: Undersea they freaked me, out so maybe.
- 31:50Speaker 2: NOT i, yes, agreed AND i will also add on
- 31:54Speaker 2: to that just to reiterate like this is so difficult
- 32:00Speaker 2: physically to do what they're. Doing but also over on
- 32:04Speaker 2: my other Podcast, saver we did an episode on sea.
- 32:07Speaker 2: Urchins they're difficult to just get like that is hard
- 32:13Speaker 2: right to. Do it takes a lot of. Skill AND
- 32:17Speaker 2: i really love that they're so cognizant of the water
- 32:25Speaker 2: and wanting to protect it and doing it like protecting the,
- 32:30Speaker 2: culture protecting the, water protecting. Traditions but it, is it's,
- 32:36Speaker 2: difficult it is so.
- 32:38Speaker 1: Hard so, WELL i think it needs to be Net
- 32:40Speaker 1: like a lot of the times they get on a,
- 32:42Speaker 1: boat go out far out into the, ocean far enough,
- 32:45Speaker 1: out and then they jump in like they are true free.
- 32:48Speaker 1: Divers i'm not saying they're just walking in right and.
- 32:52Speaker 1: Sparkling that's not what they're. Doing and they do try
- 32:55Speaker 1: to keep together as a crew so they can watch
- 32:56Speaker 1: each other just in case they are in distress because
- 32:59Speaker 1: they don't have. Anything but that floating device like that
- 33:01Speaker 1: to me is like what and it's all like decorated
- 33:05Speaker 1: from What i've. Seen, again this is kay dramas to
- 33:09Speaker 1: show who is. WHO i think this is how they
- 33:11Speaker 1: keep up with each, other and so it's part of
- 33:13Speaker 1: what they, do but like, It, yeah it's not what
- 33:15Speaker 1: you think, of just like they just walk down to
- 33:17Speaker 1: the sea and then, nah they pick Up no like
- 33:19Speaker 1: that one woman who was heavily, pregnant still needing to
- 33:22Speaker 1: work and gather. Things sure she might have been closer
- 33:25Speaker 1: to the, shore but most of the time they are
- 33:27Speaker 1: in boats and they all go out and then they
- 33:30Speaker 1: dive in to go and retrieve whatever they. Can and like,
- 33:34Speaker 1: AREAS i think abaloni are harder to get because of
- 33:37Speaker 1: the way they're like a little off from the main
- 33:40Speaker 1: areas that they stay. In so it's a whole thing
- 33:43Speaker 1: from What i've, gathered and it. Is it is very
- 33:45Speaker 1: dangerous and the fact that these are elder like elders
- 33:48Speaker 1: who are doing this is so amazing to even talk.
- 33:51Speaker 1: About but, again if you have time to watch any
- 33:54Speaker 1: of these, documentaries reading any of these, articles you really
- 33:56Speaker 1: should apparently see urchins have had.
- 34:00Speaker 2: Anything that's my, Favorite my favorite fact from Our savorite
- 34:04Speaker 2: episode on sea urchins is that they wear little hats
- 34:08Speaker 2: and people usually it's like a shell or, seaweed you,
- 34:12Speaker 2: know and it's to protect from the. Sun during the,
- 34:15Speaker 2: pandemic we were all depressed and so people started printing
- 34:18Speaker 2: out like THREE d Like viking hats or which is,
- 34:20Speaker 2: hats and the sea urchins will put them. On, yeah
- 34:24Speaker 2: and sometimes they will reject the hat if it's not good. Enough,
- 34:26Speaker 2: yes and that makes me love them even.
- 34:28Speaker 4: More.
- 34:29Speaker 1: Yes, WELL i was also saying That i'd seen a
- 34:31Speaker 1: video of an. Octopus, yeah gifted a hat and like
- 34:35Speaker 1: the because they had like trash and a diver was
- 34:39Speaker 1: trying to bargain with this octopus and got rejected like
- 34:42Speaker 1: three or four times to finally the perfect shell and
- 34:45Speaker 1: he was willing to give up the other hat to
- 34:47Speaker 1: take that, one like it was a whole. Thing secreeachers
- 34:50Speaker 1: are amazing and scary to. Me.
- 34:53Speaker 2: Agreed, agreed BUT i cannot recommend. Enough look up sea
- 34:58Speaker 2: urchins wearing. Hats you need a. Boost, also, yeah the,
- 35:06Speaker 2: boats both of.
- 35:07Speaker 1: Them uh.
- 35:08Speaker 2: Huh, well, listeners if you have any thoughts about, this
- 35:12Speaker 2: please let us. Know we would love to hear from.
- 35:14Speaker 2: You you can email us At stephanie Moms stuff at
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- 35:29Speaker 2: maya and our Contributor. Joey thank you and thanks to
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