Fishers’ Tales is an arts-based storytelling project that collects the wondrous tales that fishers enjoy telling about their ocean adventures. This project explores fishers’ connections and emotional bonds to the ocean using a visual storytelling approach. Each story is accompanied by a unique artwork. The Fishers’ Tales exhibition also provides a platform to showcase the work done by young and emerging artists in Durban, as the project is specifically aimed to support creative students studying in the city. 

The stories and accompanying artwork seek to highlight the similarities and differences in fishers’ engagements with the ocean from subsistence to recreational, provoking reflection, empathy, and dialogue. In this sense, the project hopes to build both awareness and solidarity with subsistence and small-scale fishers, who have enormous knowledge and care for the ocean that sustains them. The history of fishing in KwaZulu-Natal is where this project originates. Looking into the history of the diverse people who live along this coastal province, the daily moments captured by the artists offers insight into these experiences of connecting with the ocean, and the complex permitting regulations that impacts negatively on the livelihoods of fishers and their ability to practice fishing as part of their cultural heritage. The exhibition also highlights how climate change has affected marine life in the ocean and how that has negatively impacted the lives of small-scale and subsistence fisherfolk. Increasingly fishers along our coast line are joining the struggle for ocean wellbeing.

The project contributes towards a bigger One Ocean Hub project for inclusive and transformative approaches to ocean governance. The project is managed by the Urban Futures Centre in partnership with the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), and it is funded through the Deep Emotional Engagement Programme (DEEP) Fund (administered by the One Ocean Hub programme).