Dr. Zahidah Zeytoun Millie – Artist -Curator
شجر القرم من الماء Mangroves from the Water
The Mangroves from the Water Team is a miniature replication of Emirati Society by the mix of artists, writers and volunteers of varying nationalities, cultures and religions. Maryam Bin Touk, Aseel Al Ramlawi, Geraldine Chansard, Stephanie Neville, Miti Agarwal and Zahidah Zeytoun Millie.
The team has made a big contribution over the last two years in raising awareness in the community about the ecology of the mangrove forests and the need for their protection. We believe in the power of art and how effective our message is in reaching the world by connecting the many cultures through science, music, sport, history, philosophy, heritage and tourism. Art is the strongest, most positive way to protect mangrove trees, or protect any right, or land, or nation, or heritage or culture. By mixing cultures, science and art for a common goal and by respecting religions we can actually achieve the protection of forests and the planet Earth from global warming.
The Emirates is blessed with mangroves and they are considered another national treasure in our age of global warming and climate change. Not all mangrove forests are protected and most of them are still set for development and subject to misuse by society.
The Mangroves from the Water Team project began on 23 October 2015 with a touring exhibition around the Emirates supported by the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi. We began at the New York University Abu Dhabi, Environment Agency, Abu Dahbi, Al Mamoura, then moved to the Emirates Fine Arts Society in Sharjah, to the Umm Al Quwain Museum, , then finally to thejamjar Gallery during the 2016 Dubai Art Fair.
The project finally came to an end last month in partnership with the Umm Al Quwain Chamber of Businesswomen and the Executive Council in the Mangroves Festival 2017 that depended on art science, education, heritage and sporting contributions from a range of government and community orgnisations, families and volunteers to shed light on the mangrove forests and their importance for the environment. We coordinated our efforts with the Umm Al Quwain Education and Teaching Zone to orgnise a mangroves art competition. We actually exhibited the student work during the Festival. The 10 finalists received appreciation certificates and books presented by the Sharjah Institute for Heritage. We organised, with the support of the Sharjah Women’s Higher College of Technology, scientific pictorial and written information boards on mangroves in Arabic and English explaining the importance of mangrove forests. We orgnised with the support of Sharjah Men’s Higher College of Technology, a traditional rowing race between seven boats from orgnisations, students, men and women teachers from the community.
The goal of this event was to bring together different groups of society in a cultural celebration of this popular heritage sport in the community. We organised with the Emirates Canadian University College a marine tour of the mangrove forests in cooperation with the Umm Al Quwain Marine Club.
The male and female students then exhibited photos of the mangroves and announcements through social media and on the radio in Ras Al Khaimah about the importance of the mangrove regions. We orgnised an art competition between artists from the UAE and around the world. We were able to encourage poets and volunteer musicians to work with us to make the festival a success. The festival saw the first poetry gathering on the mangroves in cooperation with the poet Ali Al Obaidan. The event was considered to be one of the first Arabic poetry sessions about the mangroves.
We presented folklore stories on the mangroves and especially the story of the genie Fatooh, the protector of the mangroves. We cooperated with the imagination science film director Alexis Gambis who orgnised a short film on the protector of the mangroves, the genie Fatooh. We presented free trips by kayak and boat for Festival visitors to spread awareness of the beauty of the mangrove forests, along with art workshops, scenic walks and yoga sessions on the periphery of the mangroves. We orgnised attractive hotel offer deals for visitors of the Festival in three hotels of the emirate, the aim was being to encourage tourism to support and encourage the Government in protecting the mangroves. And we also tried to connect the Festival with other environment agencies such as Wasit Nature Conservation Park which presented scientific, environmental and art workshops for school students. The Fishermen’s Association with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development and Umm Al Quwain Museum all contributed booths which included exhibitions of pearl and photographs of archaeology. The Sheikh Khalifa General Hospital had a booth, and the Sharjah Institute of Heritage displayed books and built a traditional manamah majlis.
Curator: Zahidah Zeytoun Millie
https://mangrovesfromthewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mangroves-booklet.pdf
https://mangrovesfromthewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mangroves-from-the-water-catalogue.pdf
For more information on Zahidah, please see the following links:
Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) 