Water Connects Us

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Welcome to Safina Projects' Newsletter, November 2023

Solidarity with the Palestinian People and their Cultural Heritage

To mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (29 November), we share knowledge about the water heritage of Palestine and links to cultural heritage protection organisations working there.

As we invite collaboration towards a regional Open Museum Initiative for Water Culture (see Webinar announcement below), this part of the historic Fertile Crescent region is an essential part of the picture, and understanding of its heritage is an important step towards a viable future.

​Gaza was once known for its water. For centuries, it was a flourishing oasis as well as a strategic crossroads, with shallow sand wells providing plentiful water that sustained not only Gaza’s residents, but many guests including commercial caravans carrying commodities from Africa, India, Arabia and the Gulf, as well as conquerors and armies that passed through the region. The Wadi Gaza coastal wetlands are also recognised as an important natural heritage site, very rich in biodiversity and a station point for bird migratory routes.

In the West Bank region, rainwater harvesting cisterns like the one pictured above have been used for centuries by households and farms (as described in this report). Agricultural cisterns are built in the ancient Nabataean tradition: located at the lowest point of a contoured area designed to increase rain run-off and collect rainwater. The cisterns are dug into the ground and lined with stones or concrete, with an opening at the top that is covered to prevent evaporation and contamination. Water collected during the rainy season is stored for use in the dry season.

For decades, the Israeli army has been destroying such cisterns and other water facilities – agricultural pools, canals and wells – on the grounds that they were constructed or extended without permits. This is one of many "measures that aim to restrict or eliminate the presence of Palestinians from specific areas of the West Bank", as Amnesty International's report describes.

For more information about Palestinian vernacular cultural heritage, see the online resources of these projects, which like ours have been supported by the British Council's Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) with DCMS:

• ​Turathna (Our Heritage) by the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (see also their wonderful Facebook page which highlights that "Being gathered together in a place of peace and tranquility in our botanical garden 🌺🌳 is a form of resistance to everything going on around us");
• ​On Our Land project by Coventry University with Palestinian partners;
• ​Riwaq's many projects to document and restore architectural heritage sites across the West Bank and Gaza, including a new fundraising campaign to restore a historic house in the Old City of Gaza for use by BASMA Society for Culture and Arts, whose main office was recently destroyed by an Israeli air strike.

Other projects (CPF-funded) in Gaza now include the renovation of the Dar Al-Saada Dome by Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud, and an archaelogical conservation and oral history training project by PUI. Sadly, project activities have been suspended at this time (though grants remain in place) as it was no longer safe for teams to continue their work.

We honour all the people and projects in Gaza who, as Riwaq says, "have stood relentlessly to provide psychological and cultural support to the people of Gaza and document its beauty and its people. Those who have dreamt of creating a better life for the children of Gaza." Find ways to donate to Gaza relief funds here.

We add our voices to all those calling for an end to violence against civilians, for the respect of international law, an end to the blockade of Gaza (including a water ceasefire to ensure access to desperately needed clean drinking water), and for rights and justice for the Palestinian people.

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Webinar: Towards an Open Museum of Water Culture

Wednesday 20 December 2023 (2-4pm UK / 3-5pm Europe / 5-7pm Iraq)

This webinar will bring together an international panel of artists, cultural activists, makers and scholars to discuss the Open Museum Initiative for Water Culture, an art-led project for the protection and revitalization of water heritage in the Fertile Crescent and Arabian Peninsula.

From our hub in Basra, at the confluence of the Tigris-Euphrates river system and the Gulf, the Open Museum Initiative reaches out to connect regionally via the flow of the waters and their history and heritage of traditional practices, archaeological and geological remains, and archival records.

The conversation will focus on the historic roles of boats and waterways as a means of movement and relationship between peoples throughout the region, and invite participants to consider how this heritage can again become a basis for connection and regenerative action.

Save the date! Speakers and full details will be announced in our next newsletter.

Find out more about our Open Museum Initiative for Water Culture here.

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First Siraj camping trip in Chibayish

On 13-14 October, a group of 11 members of the Abu Sawbat Heritage Boat Club, accompanied by our founder Rashad Salim and Dr Muntather al-Hassani from Al-Turath al-Sha’bi (Iraq’s journal of folk culture) made their first 24-hour camping trip or “siraj” into the marshes near Chibayish. During the trip they rehearsed activities planned for the local Youth Festival (starting today, 30 November) and practised displays for tour groups visiting the area, including choreographed “formation paddling” and traditional fishing with tridents.

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Clockwise from top left: members of our Basra team in the office; early study painting and model of the Jendoul; Ashari Balam on the Shatt al-Arab in Basra; Groofi under construction in Kufa.

Historic boat studies and reconstructions: Ashari Balam, Groofi, and Jendoul

Our research and workshops reconstructing traditional and historic boat forms are ongoing. A second Ashari Balam (20th-century Basra’s equivalent of the Gondola) built by Asaad Dawood and his team has been added to our fleet used by Basra Heritage Boat Club at the Fishermen’s Marina in central Basra; while in Kufa, we commissioned the Nijarat al-Thika workshop to construct a Groofi sailing boat, which has also now joined the Basra fleet.

This element of our programme encourages boatbuilders to re-engage with their local traditions, to refine the quality of their work, and to revive certain techniques and features: for example the use of a rudder, and the construction of wide gunwales on which a person can stand while poling the boat.

Supported by our team of architectural and graphic designers, we are also working to document this heritage in detail and create a rich archive which will be made available online and through our Open Museum initiative.

We are excited for the next workshop starting in February 2024. After months of detailed designing, drawing and scale modelling, we will be reconstructing the the ‘Baghdadi Jendoul’ (Gondola) of the late Abbasid Caliphate era based on an illustration by Mahmoud ibn Yahya El Wasiti in the Hariri manuscript of 1237 AD, pictured below. Working out the likely proportions and form of this boat based on just one medieval image has been an amazing learning process and we look forward to sharing the next steps!

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Safina Projects at COP28

On 6 December, Rashad Salim has been invited to present our Ark for Iraq project as a case study on "Heritage and Climate Change" at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. He will discuss how Iraq's maritime and vernacular heritage is endangered by climate change yet has a crucial role to play in learning, resilience and restorative responses to the climate crisis.

This is part of the British Council's programme "The Climate Connection" which showcases British Council-supported projects around the world that are addressing the climate emergency through the arts, culture and education. Full programme available here.

© 2023 Safina Projects CIC

Mailing addresses:

7 Empress Mews, London SE5 9BT, UK

Unit 4, Zawaya Company building, Algeria Street, Basra 60011, Iraq

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