An exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia highlights the history of the Jeju April 3 Uprising and the island's iconic haenyeo divers. Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province
The buried history of Jeju Island and the fierce, singular resilience of its women divers arrived in Jakarta this week, part of the first major Southeast Asian exhibition devoted to the Jeju April 3 uprising, the violent ideological conflict between 1947 and 1954 that left tens of thousands dead.
The exhibition, titled “Island of Memory, Sea of Life — Jeju,” opened Monday at the KOREA360 Atrium, seeking to introduce Indonesian audiences to a tragedy that remains one of Korea’s most painful and enduring chapters.
The province of Jeju has increasingly turned to international galleries to frame the island not merely as a tourist paradise, but as a global symbol of reconciliation. Having previously staged exhibitions in Germany, Britain, France and Japan, officials are now bringing the island’s dual identity as a site of mass violence and a sanctuary of communal culture to the heart of Indonesia.
At the center of the exhibition is the 1948 uprising and the subsequent crackdown that left tens of thousands dead. During a talk titled “Stories of Jeju,” family members of victims of the uprising spoke of lives shaped by the intersection of loss and survival. Yang Sung-hong, vice chairman of the Jeju April 3 Working Committee, recounted the harrowing, decades-long effort to recover and identify the remains of those who disappeared during the violence.
This historical weight is balanced by the living heritage of the "haenyeo," the famed women divers who have harvested shellfish and plants from the sea for generations. Moon Young-wol, head of a local fishing village association, described the haenyeo’s tight-knit community traditions, painting a picture of a culture that turned to the sea for sustenance when the land was defined by turmoil.
The exhibition also serves as a celebration of diplomatic and cultural milestones, including the recent inclusion of archival records documenting the Jeju April 3 resolution process in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
The gallery itself is themed around the four seasons of Jeju, juxtaposing the island’s volcanic beauty with somber themes of memory. For a more tactile connection, visitors are invited to don traditional diving garments and gather around a recreated "bulteok," the stone fire pits where generations of women have warmed themselves after emerging from the frigid depths of the sea.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Source: Korea Times News
