The Newhaven Coastal Rowing ‘Seafaring Spirit, Newhaven Maritime Festival’ is nearly here - 26th April, 10.00-16.00 at Newhaven Harbour – as part of the EDINBURGH 900 celebrations.
Join Isla, the Oyster Diviner (Merav Israel, dancer) and community musician and songwriter Caro Overy for a ritual blessing of our recently reintroduced oyster beds. At 2.10pm-2.30pm, Caro will lead us in singing two new songs, to celebrate and honour the heritage and future of Newhaven’s oysters, dedicated to the restoration.
‘Newhaven Fishwives’ draws on the call of 'Caller O'u' with interweaving phrases relating to their 'hard lives living from the sea'. ‘Ostrea edulis’ represents a ritual blessing to the reintroduction project and participants on the day will be given an offering to give back to the Forth.
Isla, the Oyster Diviner, inhabits a realm in between the past and the present. She haunts the Newhaven shoreline, gathering only shells from dead oysters, willing the life of the ocean she knew to be restored. Isla’s costume references the Newhaven Fishwives of history and was created for the Edinburgh Shoreline, 100 Species Project, by Karen Bates, known locally as Wardie Bay Beachwatch. Expect to find Isla (performed by Merav Israel) wandering the harbour throughout the day, casting her spell on the ongoing Restoration Forth project.
Sincere thanks to Caro Overy for creating these beautiful new songs
ISLA, the Oyster Diviner, inhabits the Forth, gathering the shells of history between each tide, willing the life of the ocean she once knew to be restored by her movements.
After a barren period of 100 years, the native oyster Ostrea edulis, dredged to extinction as a result of the ‘oyster wars’ and environmental pollution, has recently been redeployed near the island of Inchkeith. ISLA, inhabits a world between the past and the present. In life, one of the notorious Newhaven fishwives, in restless death, she wanders the shoreline willing the life of the abundant ocean she once knew, back to life. The ‘oyster wars’ led to the extinction of these once abundant and celebrated oyster beds. Isla is a harbinger of peace. Her costume is the oyster and the ocean. A hermaphrodite, she gives new life to a healthy brood of Caller O’u (fresh oysters) destined to bring new harmony to the Firth of Forth.