AN American Master’s student has chosen Bahrain’s pearling heritage and oil industry as the subjects for her thesis, shining a bright spotlight on the kingdom’s rich history.
Bridget Peak, aged 28, is currently in Bahrain, conducting research and interviews for her study at MIT exploring why the pearling industry is considered ‘heritage’, while the oil sector remains more of an ‘industry’.
Ms Peak visited the kingdom last year as part of her touristic adventures and was impressed by the Pearling Path in Muharraq, which led to her deciding to pursue further research in the field.
The Pearling Path is a Unesco World Heritage site that tells the story of Bahrain’s historic pearl diving industry and features a three-and-a-half-kilometre tour of traditional buildings belonging to pearling merchants, some of which are still inhabited, offshore oyster beds and a fort, where boats carrying pearl divers once departed.
“I have already met a few families who were engaged in pearling and they’ve shared with me some of their heirlooms that they’ve inherited that were related to pearling, like the weights, chests and tools for threading pearls, which has been so interesting,” Ms Peak from Montana state, the US told the GDN.
“I have found it exceedingly easy to connect with people here because as soon as I meet one person, they’re willing to introduce me to 10 other people who might be helpful with my research,” she added, pointing to the hospitality and warm welcome that she has received.
Ms Peak said that she had always been interested in ‘trade’ and how it affected people and culture, which she has watched come alive in the Gulf region – in Bahrain last year and earlier in Muscat where she worked from 2022 to 2023.
“Trade is the main driver of movement, of migration, of integration of people. It brought so many different people to the Arabian Gulf. For me, it was like a way to think about movement of people, and confluence of different influences on things like architecture,” noted the former Sultan Qaboos University art education department researcher.
“I was really interested in heritage and how cultural heritage preservation can be done through not just physical preservation, like heritage sites, but also through education.”
While Ms Peak had initially thought to focus on Oman as she had lived there, her visit to Bahrain remained with her and at some point she decided to focus on the kingdom.
The pearl diving industry was the cornerstone of Bahrain’s economy from 1810 to 1923, after which the sector witnessed a decline, with the discovery and mass production of cultured pearls. Around the same time, oil was discovered and the former effectively collapsed by 1950.
“I think something that’s quite nice about the Pearling Path is that it is very much embedded within a neighbourhood that is still inhabited and has a very diverse community. I remember seeing these gorgeous buildings – the Sayadi Majlis and the houses – and then you also have the Pakistani restaurants that were packed. Seeing how these things were coexisting, and how people were using spaces along the path as part of their daily routines stood out for me,” Ms Peak reminisced, sharing the highlight of her first visit to the Pearling Path in January last year.
She also recalled visiting the ‘madbasa’ as part of the tour – a location where pearls were cleaned and prepared for sale.
Elaborating on why the pearling and oil industries are viewed differently, which is a major theme of Ms Peak’s thesis, she said: “While there are still families who have maintained the practice of pearling, it’s not a main force in the economy. We view pearling as something that happened in the past and we think of heritage as something that happens in the past, and oil feels like something that is still very much ongoing because it still is very important to the economy.”
The culture enthusiast is currently staying at the Bapco Awali Township and hopes to continue her research in the coming weeks.
Alongside her study, she is also excited about actually visiting the places she has only seen in photographs before.
“Just recognising and seeing places that I have only heard about many times – the church or the club – and remembering the stories that people told me about Awali is really nice. It is different from seeing just photos of those places,” she added.
Those who would like to share relevant information and stories for Ms Peak’s research can contact the author of this article on the email ID below.
melissa@gdnmedia.bh
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