From Recording to Revitalising
In 2020-21, the aims of our work began to shift. Until then, the main goal had been to discover what remained of Iraq’s inland boatbuilding and related craft heritage, and to record it (through photography, video, oral histories, and technical drawing among other methods), documenting the disappearing knowledge held by makers and their communities.
After studying Iraq’s unique boatbuilding heritage in the field for three years, it was clear to us that this heritage would vanish from the landscape permanently – unless makers had a reason to build boats the traditional way.
There were numerous reasons for the collapse of traditional boatbuilding that occurred in Iraq mainly in the second half of the 20th century. Road transport made cargo boats largely obsolete. International imports (of boats and more modern materials for making them: metal, fibreglass) replaced local boats for purposes such as fishing and ferrying. Decades of war and conflict often made waterways no-go areas. Areas once rich in boats, like the Marshlands and vast irrigated palm orchards of southern Iraq, suffered ecological collapse for political and/or economic reasons – deliberate draining, upstream damming, pollution, and the encroaching oil industry – leading to the displacement of local populations.
Who would use these boats in today’s Iraq? This question was the seed of the Iraqi Heritage Boat Clubs Network.
When we first took the boats built in our workshops out on the water with the local communities, and began to run boat training workshops with the youth-led environmental organisation Humat Dijlah (Tigris Protectors Association) in 2019, it was clear something special was happening. Most of the young people involved had never been in a boat before. Some young women from Hit (occupied by ISIS until 2017) had never even been allowed to visit the beautiful river Euphrates that ran through their town, as it had been known as a dangerous place.
Reclaiming public access to the waterways felt like a powerful shift. River and wetland environments were an essential part of Mesopotamian history, and being on the water evoked the connection with thousands of years of ancestors who made boats and navigated these waters. Travelling under your own power (paddling) and in relationship with the elements of water and wind (sailing) were experiences of a kind of agency that was new to most participants, but also an ancient, primal part of what it is to be human.
Distinctive Iraqi boats like the high-prowed Meshouf (marsh canoe) and the Guffa coracle are national icons, remembered in art and on social media despite their absence from the waterways. Today they still have the power to bring people together and generate pride.
In 2020, while some of our boats were being repaired in a boatyard in Babylon, local youth football coach Captain Sabah al-Rubaye saw them and was inspired. In collaboration with Safina Projects and his football team Lion of Babylon, and later with Al-Mustaqbal University College, he began to develop the first boat club for young people using these traditional boats.
Today, thanks to Captain Sabah’s efforts as Network Coordinator and the kind support of our funders ALIPH Foundation and the Cultural Protection Fund, there are four Heritage Boat Club initiatives in development: in Babylon, Basra, Chibayish, and Baghdad (Kadhimiya and Adhamiya), with four more planned by 2025.
In their early stages the clubs receive boats, equipment, training and support from Safina Projects. Each club is locally managed and organises its own programme of training sessions. Some clubs also have the capacity to host visitors and organise boat trips in their local area.
To find out more about the Heritage Boat Clubs Network please visit iraqiheritageboatclubs.net. To receive updates, please subscribe.
