Labcast | Nyu Production Lab

Ghazi Faisal Al-Muliafi’s journey began with one statement from his grandfather, who was once a Kuwaiti pearl diving shipmaster: “All the men died at sea”. Now an ethnomusicologist at NYU Abu Dhabi, Ghazi has spent his career researching Kuwaiti pearl diving music and the lives of the pearl divers in order to connect with his ancestral past. In the process, his work has uncovered long lost narratives that have larger implications on how we think about cultural appropriation, tradition, and national identity. When Kuwait became a nation in 1961, the music of pearl diving became codified as a national signifier for the country. The music was no longer allowed to morph and change as it had for hundreds of years prior when the pearl divers were out at sea, travelling along their trading routes. Ghazi realized that his ancestors were global citizens in their own right and, without the current ideals about fixed heritage and national identity, they experienced a freedom of cultural sharing that we no longer have to