• SeaSisters on empowering girls and women to swim and surf

The SeaSisters from Weligama are making waves and breaking barriers by empowering girls and women to swim and surf, and now, through the work of Alliance Française de Colombo and photographer Munira Mutaher, their efforts on local coasts are being taken across oceans. A collection of photographs of the SeaSisters, currently on display at Alliance Française de Colombo, will be Sri Lanka’s submission for the ‘Sport Friendly: The Field of Diversity’ project by French photographer Emilien Buffard.

The project seeks to redefine the classic values of sports, affirming that, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, gender, or physical or social condition, there is a place for everyone in the realm of sports. The global project has integrated 22 sports teams from 16 countries.

With the exhibition open until 20 July, SeaSisters representatives, Mutaher, and mountaineer and women’s rights activist Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala joined a panel discussion moderated by Everystory Sri Lanka co-founder Widya Kumarasinghe on 29 June, where they shared their stories, highlighted the challenges faced by women in sports, and shed light on the structural and policy changes needed to make sports more inclusive and diverse.

Inclusivity in sports

Providing context on the significance of the photography exhibition as well as the international project, Alliance Française de Colombo shared that as the world celebrates the Summer Olympic games, taking place this year in Paris, it was also important to celebrate the values of the games.

French Embassy Cultural Counsellor Olivia Bellemere explained that one of the values of the Olympics was inclusivity, which includes disability and gender inequality. “The Olympic games in Paris will have a special process on gender equality, with 50% of the qualified athletes for the Olympic games being women,” she said, adding that efforts are also being made to bridge the gender gap in paralympic games.

Given international efforts to make sports more inclusive, the panel that followed shed light on local efforts as well as the unique challenges Sri Lankans face in making space for diversity.

Taking on the waves

Representing the SeaSisters at the event were Programme and Community Manager and Ocean Educator Udani Hewamadduma and Programme and Community Director Kalpa Gandhari, with Gandhari sharing that she joined SeaSisters at the age of 25 as a translator. The main reason for joining, she said, was her inability to swim, despite growing up in the coastal village of Unawatuna.

Her hometown exposed her to sea sports and seeing surf tourists ignited her curiosity about the sport. “When I first joined SeaSisters and told my mother that I wanted to go for the programme, she wasn’t too sure about what it was and where it was, so she came with me for the first two weeks to see where I was going,” Gandhari said. “Finally, she also became a participant and started to learn swimming and surfing with us when she was 52 years old.”

Hewamadduma described herself as being an ocean lover for as long as she could recall. Spending all her free time at the beach, she noticed, especially during the season, many foreigners surfing. However, the lack of locals, particularly women, stood out to her. And so, Hewamadduma wanted to give surfing a go.

“I wanted to try it and I was looking for a place to learn to surf but the places were very expensive and they only had male instructors. After some time, I got to know about SeaSisters from a mutual friend and that’s how I joined,” she shared.

Later, when SeaSisters learnt about her passion for the ocean and ocean studies, Hewamadduma was given a role in ocean education, with a main focus of SeaSisters being ocean and environmental awareness.

Sharing her story, Hewamadduma also took the time to acknowledge the efforts of SeaSisters founders Martina Burtscher and Amanda Prifti, whose small step five years ago in founding SeaSisters has been making a big difference in Sri Lanka.

Creating a safe space for women

The SeaSisters are determined to create a safe space for girls and women to empower them and encourage them to push barriers and make waves. However, in creating this safe space, they have also taken into consideration various factors, including cultural, social, and mental health factors.

Hewamadduma pointed out that when those who join the SeaSisters share their stories with the team, different narratives and voices are heard. These highlight social issues that cannot be ignored. One major factor to take into account, she said, was the 2004 tsunami, which left deep scars along the country’s coast. Two decades later, these scars still remain, with some afraid to wade into the waves that took away their loved ones and destroyed their homes.

Such trauma surfaces in such groups, with Hewamadduma saying there were inspiring moments of girls and women using the SeaSisters to overcome their fear of the sea. There are also phobias and other mental health issues to consider, she pointed out, saying that the organisation plans on raising awareness about these as well as they can act as a barrier to making sea sports more inclusive.

Gandhari on the other hand shed light on cultural and social aspects that act as barriers, saying that surfing has been a traditionally male-dominated sport, with very few women taking the waves. She pointed out that in Sri Lanka, women rarely actively engage with the water, often taking on a more passive role. This could be due to fear, a lack of opportunity, gender norms, family duties, and the reluctance to make recreational activities and sports a priority.

“Tourists engage in surfing but we rarely see our own people doing it. We don’t even realise it’s something we should try. It’s hard to get participants for projects because it’s not easy to go out of your comfort zone,” she said, adding that while girls and women may face challenges in getting parental consent, beliefs about colourism, for instance, can also deter women from engaging in such activities.

While taking these factors into account, the SeaSisters are taking measures to create a safe space that allows girls and women to broaden their horizons. These efforts include having a dress code that accommodates various cultural beliefs, female instructors, and using swimming and surfing as a tool of empowerment.

“At the end of the day, our goal is to get these girls out there and see more women on the waves,” Gandhari said.

Meanwhile, Kuru-Utumpala shared her thoughts on inclusivity in sports, pointing out the challenges she herself faced, from finding mountaineering gear of her size as well as being celebrated as the first Sri Lankan woman to climb Mount Everest, when in fact, she was the first Sri Lankan to do so.

She spoke about wider structural and policy changes that were needed, like having more women in decision making levels, as well as the need to focus on wider areas like training, sponsorships, and nutrition.

Photographer’s perspective

The discussion also gave space for Mutaher to talk about her role as a photographer in the project and the role photographers play in storytelling. “Once I was commissioned for this project, I with the Alliance Française de Colombo team went down to Weligama and spent time with the SeaSisters, joining their sessions, surfing, and learning to surf with them. We sat down and talked to them about their stories and also about how they would like to be seen,” she said, explaining that the collection celebrated the SeaSisters and the space they occupy.

In terms of representation, she shared a perspective that said a black man holding a black camera does not make for black photography. Similarly, she pointed out that her identity as a woman didn’t necessarily make for female-centred photography, explaining that her work also had to do with her own politics and how her background shapes the stories she tells.

“What I would like to see is all photographers from as many backgrounds and places taking more photographs that are from their own environments, telling their stories,” she said, pointing out that photographers need to be taking different kinds of photographs that are about them and the way that they want to be seen, especially since there is a very specific way of how Sri Lanka is seen locally and globally.