Invitation to Experience ‘Mangroves from the Water’ Exhibition
Discover the hidden beauty of mangroves through a 360-degree immersive film experience and art installations, part of Zahidah Zeytoun Millie’s PhD research submission. This project delves into the intersection of artistic practice and environmental advocacy.
The first part of the exhibition will be held daily at the Project Space Gallery, Deakin Waterfront Campus, from 11th to 20th September, with viewing hours from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Please refer to the poster for additional details.
The second part of the exhibition features an immersive film experience, which will be screened at the Nyaal Precinct, Waurn Ponds Deakin campus, on 19th and 20th September, with sessions from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Mangroves from the Water film was made possible with the kind support of Aubrey Comben (camera operator, editor), sound artist Hamish Dobie, Deakin University, and The Nyaal.
Mangroves from the Water started as an art campaign in the UAE in 2014 with a series of multimedia group art exhibitions over three years, and a 2017 Mangroves Festival. The art campaign continued globally from International Mangroves Day 26 July 2021, running till 18 August, in Geelong, Australia. Our latest exhibition was held at the National Mall in Washington DC during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2022. We had the honour to represent the UAE at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival from 21 June to 4 July.
Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) is the title for my presentation at the Australasian Mangroves and Saltmarshes (AMSN) Conference held at the University of Adeliade, 14 to 17 November 2023. My PhD study research at Deakin University is of the same title, Mangroves from the Water.
The 16 November presentation was successful as it was the sole speech explaining a different set of knowledge about the mangroves; from an artivist who situates philosophical and artistic embodied knowledge with the mangroves. I was able to bridge art and science in this conference. Being the sole artist in this conference encourages me to stress the importance of having more artists, writers, musicians and activists (artivists) to be involved in the annual AMSN conferences.
We are happy to announce the art and mangroves campaign Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) is going to present at the upcoming conference in Adelaide: The Annual Australasian Mangrove and Saltmarsh Network Conference – Living Coasts, 14 to 17 November 2023.
The founder of MFTW and a PhD candidate at Deakin University, Zahidah Zeytoun Millie, is going to present at this important conference in Adelaide. We note that the AMSN conference occurs just before the Climate Summit in Dubai (Cop28), 30 November to 12 December.
MFTW are proudly the pioneers in the UAE for mangroves and saltmarsh preservation. We are very excited to present and talk about our over a decade experience and knowledge in in the field in the UAE and Victoria, Australia, and meet scientists and like-minded artists and activists in the field.
For more details on the AMSN Conference, open this link: AMSN living Coasts.
For more details about the upcoming climate summit in Dubai, open this link:
Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) is happy to announce the in-progress publication of our first illustrated story about the mangroves and saltmarshes, The Gini Fatouhah. The story is based on the fabled Gini Fatouh, a much-loved Emirati folk tale featured in Dr Abdulaziz Almusallam’s Al Wahri (2022, الواري).
Our aim with this story is to highlight the beauty of the mangroves and their importance to the environment. The story of a young gini provides a message of the importance of being close to nature. The story also contributes to the updating of heritage stories to celebrate the role of females and environmentalists in the UAE, all of whom are playing an important role in protecting nature.
Zahidah Zeytoun Millie authors the story and the illustrations are a result of a collaboration with the artist Géraldine Chansard. Our illustration process involves Géraldine characterising the story within Zahidah’s own water colour sketches that she has painted from a kayak among the mangroves of Umm Al Quwain. Géraldine designs the layout of the book.
We would like to thank and acknowledge the great support that MFTW research and art exhibition projects have received from the Sharjah Institute for Heritage since 2017, especially for publishing our first short story the Gini Fatouhah in 2023.
Our deep gratitude goes to the Chairman of the Sharjah Institute for Heritage, Dr Abdulaziz Almusallam, for his vision in linking art, heritage and the environment. We also acknowledge the support of the publishing director Dr Mini Abdelkader and all the staff at the Institute for their patience and continuous support for the benefit of the environment. This connection of heritage storytelling and contemporary environmental stories is an important reference point for cultural identity and popular memory, as Dr Abdulaziz writes in his introduction to the Mangroves Festival 2017 catalogue:
The mangrove tree has a lot of encompassed forms of expression in the community’s memory and it has produced values, customs, traditions, experiences and popular ethics, artistic creations and experiences of traditions, which add to the totality, the depth, and richness of heritage.
إن ارتباط شجر القرم بحياة الإماراتين قديمًا، وتفاعلهم معه، وتشكيله جزءً كبرًا من هويتهم الثقافية والاجتماعية يجعل من ضرورة المحافظة عى تراث هذه الشجرة أمرًا من الأهمية، لنر الوعي حول أهميتها وضرورة الحفاظ عليها، لمكانتها وموقعها المهم في الراث الثقافي الإماراتي والملهم في نفس الوقت، لذلك فهي تعتر عنرا أساسيًا في الموروث الثقافي والتقاليد الفلكورية للتجمعات السكانية في الدولة.
Faithfully,
Zahidah Zeytoun Millie
Founder & Curator at Mangroves from the Water (MFTW)
It has taken over two centuries for non-Indigenous people to truly recognise the value of mangroves. Similarly, the aesthetic allure of mangrove forests and the appreciation of mangrove-inspired art have evolved only gradually.
Since the launch of Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) in 2013, the initiative has endeavoured to spotlight the beauty and ecological importance of mangroves through multidisciplinary art exhibitions. These exhibitions not only showcase the diverse artistry inspired by mangroves but also aim to foster global awareness and protection of these vital ecosystems. MFTW promotes art that emerges from deep ecological intimacy, encouraging artists to engage directly with mangroves—often by kayaking through them—thereby nurturing a profound and reflective connection with this unique environment.
Over the years, Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) has inspired many artists to explore the mangroves through kayaking, fostering engagement, raising awareness, and stimulating art creation from these immersive experiences. In a recent radio interview in February, artist Jacqui Dreessens shared that MFTW had introduced her to the mangroves, a previously unknown area of Geelong (The Sustainable Hour, 2023).
Now, is the time for art collectors to contribute to building a nascent mangroves art market in southern Victoria, which I believe will raise awareness of mangroves among a Victorian audience. In principle when we love a tree, nostalgic memories arise, often compelling us to collect art that represents this connection.
We are pleased to announce that gallery director Karen Spreadborough has embraced the idea of hosting and curating an exhibition focused on mangroves and wetlands at her spacious gallery, The Hive, aptly located near the Barwon River mangroves. The exhibition, Flow – Stories from the Wetlands, is featuring works from 25 artists, is currently open at The Hive Ocean Grove Gallery and will run until June 30, 2024.
For information on the Flow- Stories from the Wetlands exhibition and the Hive gallery please visit these two websites:
Mangroves from the Water is proud to represent this appreciation certificate from the Smithsonian for their participation at the Smithsonian Folklife festival.
Zahidah Zeytoun Millie is all about roots: her Syrian roots, mangrove roots, and the roots she sets down in each country she moves to. As an artist and curator, she ties them together in her artwork and her activism.
Here at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, as part of the United Arab Emirates program, Zahidah leads workshops on painting mangrove trees. When I arrived at her tent, ten or so children, drawn by the inviting sight of colorful watercolor palettes, sat in a circle on the ground. In the center was a large glass jar of mangrove saplings. The children drew outlines with a watercolor marker, then softened the lines with a wet brush, and finally added a wash of watercolor from the pans. She walked around, commenting on line quality or color choice. Her own paper was covered in swirls of green and brown that coalesced into the tangled roots of a mangrove.
Zahidah’s artist website shows almost 200 mangrove watercolors. They’re visually tantalizing pieces, varied but unified. Some are more figurative while others lean abstract: mangroves naturally dance between organic body and graphic design. Sometimes she paints wet-in-wet, letting the pigment flow and blur so that the painting only implies a tree as its subject. Other paintings are crisply detailed, with bold dark strokes for the branches.
Mangroves gave Zahidah hope and purpose in a time of crisis. In 2012, when civil war broke out in Syria, she was living in the UAE.
“I was very scared about my family, my homeland,” she said. “But as an artist, you always survive with your art.” She began kayaking through the marshes in the UAE to relax, and there she found the mangroves. “I thought, okay, what can I do? There are two things—the mangroves and my country—and I linked them in one. I organized an exhibition about the mangroves. And the funds I sent to Syrian children and refugees in Syria. That was my little contribution.”
Zahidah telling her story to the children
Zahidah spent many years working as both an artist and environmental activist. When she moved to the UAE in 2000, she became interested in issues of native plant conservation and sustainable architecture. Mangroves are native to the UAE—the country has significant coastal regions, despite popular perception as a purely desert biome. Unlike many trees, mangroves thrive in saline waters. They support aquatic and terrestrial life, purify surrounding waters, and act as carbon sinks. The beautiful trees both inspire us and protect against climate change, but they are in danger. According to the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, the rate of mangrove forest loss is three to four times higher than that of terrestrial forests.
As the Syrian war raged on, Zahidah refocused. She recalled thinking, “I can’t do anything for the manmade war in my home country, but I can try to do what I have in front of me.” She involved herself fully in the cause of the mangroves. Gathering a group of fellow artists, she curated another multimedia art exhibition, Mangroves from the Water. She received funding from an environmental agency in Abu Dhabi, and her work eventually culminated in a 2017 mangrove festival.
Now, Zahidah and her family live in Australia. Upon moving, she found that Australia had the same issue of mangrove loss. Making Australian people care, however, has been more difficult. “In the UAE, I tried to work from the roots of the thing. I found a story,” she said. “But moving to Australia, I couldn’t find a story. Different politics, different history.”
She needed to find roots in Australia, something to connect the people to the trees. So she chose to expand her project, Mangroves from the Water, into a PhD at Deakin University.
“I keep trying to see what is right, what is wrong, what is going on. This is the meaning of life for me.”
Zahidah Zeytoun Millie teaches us to look closely at the world in front of us: to notice its beauty, to learn to love and protect her. Join her at the Story Majlis to see her art and learn about mangrove conservation.
Author Sophie Henry is a writing intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and an art history major at Yale University. She also studies Spanish, German, and chemistry.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is in full swing. Zahidah has been very busy entertaining the audiences with traditional storytelling, and manning the Mangroves from the Water exhibition space.
Here are a few images of the event thus far…
Zahidah mesmerizing the audience with storytelling
Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) 