00:00My name is Abdullah Rashid Al-Swadi. I am a pearl diver and trader as well over pearls.
00:10I finished my education, my bachelor in the United States at the American University in
00:20political science and public relations and I finished my master's degree in Australia at
00:25the ANU, Australian National University in trade diplomacy. And I work in foreign service,
00:32I work in the government, but being abroad studying and working with the government,
00:38I did not feel that it was me. It was someone else. I wanted to go back to where I originally
00:46started my life with my grandfather, the pearl diver. I'm talking about 1970s. I was fascinated
00:53about his personality and behind this mysterious personality. I was a great man and was a good
01:01storyteller and also a trainer for the pearl diving and the secrets of the pearl and oysters.
01:09I've spent my childhood with him, you know, in Arabic houses, in Emirati houses. Grandparents
01:17live and die in the houses. So my grandfather and my grandmother has a quarter or a coat at the house,
01:26section of the house. So that's where my refuge for knowledge, refuge for protection sometimes from my
01:34mother beating. And I always felt safe with my grandfather and my grandmother. And with that comes
01:41the baggage of falling in love and passionately loving oysters and the pearls. And it is my childhood
01:50memories that I always to bring back and organize when I become older. It was actually, I was working
01:58in Bararel. The issue of the pearl diving, it was very controversial. People think because of the collapse
02:07of the pearling industry, pearl doesn't exist in the Gulf or in the UAE. And this beautiful wooden boat that
02:15sails one day with the sail is no longer needed because there is an engines and everything. It didn't make
02:22sense to my mind. And my grandfather was feeding me with a lot of information that I see that one day can
02:29can be revived. So while I was working and studying, I was doing the diving and I was doing my studies
02:38on oysters. So what happens? Oysters are found. I know it's where it's located. This map was my treasure map.
02:48This is the map of Shaykh Ma'ana bin Rashid Al Maktoub sketched in 1930s.
02:56And you will be very surprised that most of the spots in this map still exist and Oyster has. And this is my
03:05guide map to the bottom of the sea treasures. So the work, the study, it's a conventional.
03:17It's everybody has to do. But this dream, nobody can do. And if I couldn't do it, someone else would come
03:25and do it. So I do it myself and revive a legacy that lasted for thousands of years. It didn't make
03:32sense in my mind that it should be replaced with the oil and the diverse economy of the oil. I think
03:42and I strongly believe that the pearling industry in the UAE and in the Gulf is the pyramid
03:49of Egypt, like the pyramids of Egypt, how important the pyramid of Egypt, although its presence and
03:57tangible, the pearling industry was only in books and writings. And the bulk of the pearls has left
04:07with the biggest trader. Take, for example, Sultan Al Awais, the biggest collector of natural pearl. And other
04:14families as well from Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Sharjah and Ras al-Khima, who have done pearling for many
04:21years, also Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and still exist until today. So you could say I was the
04:28catalyst to motivate and I wanted my children and the generation to come to carry on this legacy. So why I
04:38left it? Why I left the work? I think this is a work worth of attention. And if I want to simply simplify it,
04:49it is like the beautiful necklace of pearl that lasted for thousands of years. And with our time
04:56of the collapse of this industries in 1930s, 1940s, this necklace is cut off and will be disconnected.
05:06That's my feeling. So I myself saw my grandfather who died for the pearl oysters with my eyes and he
05:16taught me everything. And my son who was born two years after my grandfather died, haven't seen my
05:26grandfather even alive. So I felt like we are the middle generation that has to carry on the legacy and
05:36move it to the next generations. With using scientific research, technology, now AI and everything,
05:44we could do a lot of things. Pearl diving was in the past and today with me and in the future is the
05:52ethic, the morals, the characters of a person who doesn't fear anything in this. Only fear God.
06:00When you dive traditionally with a nose clip, you break the barrier of fear. You fear nothing.
06:10And the whole story that we heard of people survived, they've seen terrible things on the water,
06:18but they survived because of the carriage. There is a resistance beside the carriage, resistance.
06:27Pearl Diver is very persistent, very persistent. And Pearl Diver like teamwork. So they are like,
06:37you know, they cannot do this job alone. I cannot do this today job alone without a supporter and a whole
06:43crew that can support me like the old days. So there is morals and ethics of the old times,
06:50men who died for the toll that can carry on with our generation and the next generations.
06:56There is a lot of stories. There is stories that it happens with them. They face some dangers and they
07:03face some challenges on the sea. And there is a story inherited. The most beautiful stories inherent in
07:11is what is called the Orphan Pearl story, which is a story that also is in the literature for a person called
07:20Musallam bin Bishr, who lived, I think, during the Umayyad dynasty. We are talking about 1,200 years ago.
07:32A person from this coast has trading and have a legacy of trading and he dropped down in the income
07:46and in the lack of getting more pearls. So his trading was losing, losing with years and years of less
07:54harvest. And he has to borrow his wife gold to recruit the final ship of the trip. And he financed it fully
08:06from the gold of his wife. And when he head into the sea for about 59 days, they've got nothing, no pearls at all.
08:15Oysters, but no pearls. And some members of the crew at the boat, divers, have said, given a proposal, says,
08:25we've been diving in the name of Allah for these 59 days. Why don't we try and dive in the name of Satan?
08:32So they decided to do that. And they went diving and they got a pearl. When they showed it to the captain,
08:40Musallam bin Bishr, he said, Mashallah. And one of them said, God was, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was not
08:50the reason of that. We dive in the name of Satan. So he knew this is an evil pearl. And he went and
08:58brought a stone and he crushed it, crushed the pearl and sent it into the sea. And he asked him,
09:04this is a sign now to dive in the name of Allah. So they've dived in the name of Allah. And before
09:10sunset, they've got two pearls, one of them as large as the pigeon egg. And it's become very popular.
09:18And it was named, which is, we call it the one and only pearls or the orphan pearl in the
09:25identical translation. And it was in the safe and treasury of Umayyad Khalifa for many, many years.
09:31And it was mentioned in the history. So this is something that happened in our Gulf. It happened
09:36with our culture. And it's always the fight between evil and good. My grandfather has a daily trip going
09:44to the sea. And I was not allowed because my mother feared that I go and drown in the sea. There's a lot of
09:51boys had drawn in this bay because of the currents, the dangerous currents that suck the boys in and
09:57they die and drown. He knows that I want to join him in this trip. So one day he gave me that hand
10:04and told my mother that he will be taking care of me. And this is where the first time I see him
10:12going into the sea with a trouser after taking his dress and disappearing in the water for a long time.
10:19That's for me as a kid. It was not believed. I couldn't believe that. And I thought always that
10:24my grandfather is actually half man, half fish, because nobody can stay that long in the sea.
10:31That's the imagination of a little boy. So that's has created this kind of a memory with my grandfather
10:38and always wishes that it's happened with me to discover the underwater. And so that was like a goal
10:45and a vision that I have even I have a continuous vision when I sleep, is that I dive on the water
10:54and a pearl comes from the bottom and land in my hand. And the interpretation of that, as I've been
11:02told by my grandmother, is that the pearl is the knowledge that the meaning of the pearl is knowledge in
11:10dreams. And landing on my land, it's exclusivity. So she said, I'll be gifted with the knowledge
11:18that it will be exclusive. And this knowledge happened to be her pearl diving and carrying
11:24on the pearl diving legacy to the future.
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