This feels apt given the documentary’s subject—the matriarchal haenyeo community, which dates back centuries and in 2016 was included on Unesco’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. One theory links haenyeo back to the 17th century when a tax was imposed on men’s labour, thereby encouraging women to go and seek a livelihood instead. Another suggests that women simply did better as their higher body fat composition allowed them to stay longer in the water, gathering more catch. Whatever the origins, the haenyeo tradition is one that has been passed down from mothers to daughters over generations, resulting in a community of financially independent women that has long been in stark contrast to South Korea’s historically patriarchal society. 

“My family has had haenyeo for the past seven generations,” says 79-year-old Hee Soon Lee through a translator in an interview with Tatler Asia. “I saw my mother support the family with the income from being a haenyeo.” Lee, who features in The Last of the Sea Women, followed in her mother’s footsteps and at the age of 18 became a haenyeo. 

Increasingly, the traditions of the haenyeo are not being passed down to new generations. Lee’s own daughter became a haenyeo, but changed career after ten years of diving. From peaks in the 1960s where there were around 30,000 Jeju haenyeo (out of a population of 200,000), today there are only around 4,000 left. 

While the people of Jeju are keen to keep the tradition alive, establishing schools to help preserve haenyeo culture and encourage younger women who might not have the elderly family or relatives to teach them, there are few who graduate and persevere as haenyeo. 

“It is a really challenging and difficult job,” says Lee. And while perceptions of the haenyeo have changed, it’s becoming a harder job to sustain as marine life is increasingly under threat, impacting the financial rewards. “Before, there were a lot of sea cucumbers, so the haenyeo really used to make a lot of money,” says Lee. “[But] these days the harvest is not as good from the ocean.”

In The Last of the Sea Women, Kim highlights the stories of two young haenyeo who live on Geoje Island, located 157 miles from Jeju. These modern haenyeo have come to prominence on YouTube for showcasing their work freediving for seafood.

“I love how they put this youthful spin on this ancient culture,” says Kim of Sohee Jin, a 30-year-old former office worker who, fed up with corporate life and a cubicle existence, abandoned the city in favour of working in nature as a haenyeo, and her influencer sidekick Jeongmin Woo, a 37-year-old mother of three who chose the haenyeo life for the flexibility it offered. 

Some of the documentary’s most heartwarming and hopeful moments occur when the haenyeo from opposite ends of the age spectrum unite in their shared passion for their work and their advocacy for the seas. But they are also moments filled with poignancy. Even in the relatively short time that these modern haenyeo have been diving, they have seen their income decrease year on year as they witness firsthand how environmental crises are impacting the oceans and wonder whether they have the long future ahead of them that the haenyeo who came before them did when they started diving. 

Seventy-two-year-old Soon Deok Jang learnt to swim at the age of 16 and became a haenyeo at 20. She almost didn’t pursue a career in the ocean. Unlike the admiration director Kim has for the haenyeo, Jang says that “people really looked down on the haenyeo”. She decided instead to go to Seoul where she trained to be a hairdresser. But, when she moved back to Jeju Island after getting married, she returned to the sea, realising that this was the only way to make a good living. 

“Before I worked as a haenyeo we were very poor, but I ended up making a lot of money. I was very successful at being a haenyeo. My husband took care of the baby and I would go to Japan three months out of the year to dive into the water as a haenyeo,” says Jang, whose work not only allowed her to support her family and send her children to school but also to increase her wealth. “Even if I were to be born again, I think I would still be working as a haenyeo.”

However, fewer and fewer women want to pursue the career path of Jang and her fellow haenyeo. While still lucrative—for now—the work is dangerous and there is little support outside the community. We see this when 63-year-old haenyeo Joo Hwa Kang breaks her foot during filming, leaving her unable to work and highlighting the vulnerability of the haenyeo despite their strength.

The haenyeo are also at the mercy of their environment. The health of the ocean is a frequent topic of conversation as their relationship with the sea makes them particularly sensitive to the impact of industrial fishing, rising water temperatures and pollution, all of which are affecting the abundance of marine life and threatening the haenyeo’s well-being—both physical and financial—which is intrinsically linked with that of the ocean. 

While Kim was filming The Last of the Sea Women, it was announced that Japan would release treated radioactive wastewater collected following the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. The documentary covers this developing story, which reinforces the resilience and determination of the haenyeo as they process what this could mean for the health of the oceans and themselves, and seek to unite and respond, going out to protest on the streets and speak up. 

In an unpredictable turn of events, haenyeo Soon Deok Jang is chosen to represent her community at the United Nations and boards a plane to fly halfway around the world to Switzerland where she proceeds to deliver a two-minute speech in English, a language completely foreign to her, on the potential impact of Japan’s decision. 

“The moment that really stood out to me is when they agree to go and speak at the UN Geneva and take this issue of the threat to sea life very seriously,” says Yousafzai, who has herself spoken at the United Nations. “[The haenyeo] want to make sure that they join, especially the youth activists, to further amplify their call. They’re coming together; they are actually pausing their work and going and joining protests and they’re speaking [on] these different platforms, which is a lot of work for them, but they have the courage to do that because of the fact that they recognise the urgency and importance of really protecting the environment, the ocean and their community.”

The Last of the Sea Women is a valuable documentation of the inspirational haenyeo before it’s too late, emphasising the power of community, highlighting the courage and determination of women and underscoring the vulnerability of the oceans. 

“[The documentary] challenges many perspectives, not just how we define empowerment and independence for women, but also how we define living in a sustainable environment,” says Yousafzai. “The way that [the haenyeo] cooperate and collaborate with each other, the way they protect the ocean, the way they are actually dismissing all of these expectations that women have to dress a certain way, behave a certain way, talk a certain way. They are saying, ‘We love the ocean, we want to dive in the ocean. This is how we want to make a living. We want to distribute it. We want everybody to get their fair share’. [It’s] such an important message for all of us to reflect on. The haenyeo are one of very few matriarchal societies, but the values they have are so important. I think there’s so much for all of us to learn from it.” 

“I hope that women all over the world can look at the film, especially the younger generation, and learn from us,” says haenyeo Jang. “Jeju women are very, very strong. They were strong in the past, and they are strong now. I hope that women of the world can take the role of leader, of the leader in the family … and become more like the women of Jeju Island.”

“We don’t know what the future will bring,” adds Lee. “But one thing is sure, we are very proud to be haenyeo and very happy to be working. I hope that this tradition continues.”

And in a final rallying call to highlight Jeju’s last sea women, she cries, “Please spread the word!”

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