“Welcome to Kihnu. We aren’t a matriarchy,” says Mare Mätas as she meets me off the ferry. I’ve stepped on to the wild and windswept Kihnu island, which floats within the Gulf of Riga off Estonia’s western coast like a castaway from one other time. Simply 4 miles (7km) lengthy and two miles broad, this Baltic outpost is a world unto itself that has lengthy been shielded from the complete impression of modernity, a spot the place motorbikes share the street with horse-drawn carts, and ladies in shiny striped skirts nonetheless sing historical sea songs. However Kihnu isn’t any museum – it’s a dwelling, respiration tradition all of its personal, proudly cared for by its 650 or so residents.
Mare, a conventional tradition specialist and native information, promptly ushers me into the open again of her truck and takes me on a whistlestop tour of the island, giving me a historical past quiz as we cease on the museum, the lighthouse, the cemetery and the varsity.
The lads of Kihnu would as soon as have spent many months away at sea, crusing or looking seals. Out of necessity, the ladies of the island grew to become the heads of the household in addition to the keepers of the island’s cultural heritage. This led to Kihnu being nicknamed “the island of ladies”, and the BBC even proclaimed it “Europe’s final surviving matriarchy”. However Mare could be very clear: “In case you should use a phrase, you might say that our tradition is matrifocal. However I want to say that on Kihnu we’re merely equal. Women have standing in the neighborhood, and older ladies have a better standing – they’re seen as clever elders. Ladies work because the guardians of our tradition, and we glance after the circle of life on the island – now we have the kids, we have a tendency the land, we take care of the lifeless.”
The ladies of Kihnu have been lighthouse keepers, tractor drivers and even stand-in monks. As we speak, they play historical melodies on violin and accordion, train their daughters conventional dances and sing Kihnu’s eerily lovely runic songs, believed to be of pre-Christian origin. Most eyecatchingly, they put on conventional gown – shiny crimson woollen skirts, embroidered blouses and patterned headscarves. These aren’t simply clothes donned for weddings or festivals – that is the one place in Estonia the place people gown remains to be donned every day.
Mare is sporting a crimson striped kört skirt and woollen jacket. Her daughters, of their teenagers and 20s, pair their conventional skirts with slogan T-shirts. The skirts are woven each winter and every tells the story of the wearer. Younger ladies often put on crimson – they’re supposedly within the “fairytale” period of their lives. If a lady is in mourning, she is going to don a black skirt. Over the months, her skirts will embrace extra crimson and purple stripes till she’s wearing joyful crimson once more. A married girl wears an apron over her skirt, and new fashions and patterns nonetheless affect designs right this moment. “When paisley was dropped at the island from India, we started utilizing it for our headscarves,” explains Mare. “And within the Nineteen Sixties, when miniskirts had been the trend, we wore mini körts!”
I spot ladies of all ages wearing shiny flashes of crimson as I cycle concerning the island’s dust roads on a sit-up-and-beg-bike. Kihnu is a patchwork of wildflower meadows and pine groves, edged by rocky shoreline and dotted with picket properties painted in main yellows and reds. Exterior one homestead I meet Jaak Visnap. An artist from Tallinn, he has run naive artwork camps right here each summer season for 20 years. Traditionally, most of the island’s sailors had been additionally naive painters (artists who usually haven’t any formal coaching and exhibit a simplicity of their work), and once I meet Jaak, he and a gaggle of portray college students from Kihnu and the mainland are busy engaged on richly colored work for an exhibition within the island’s museum.
Estonians usually label themselves as chilly and standoffish, however the painters welcome me warmly and supply me wine. The solar comes out and transforms the island – moody gray skies swept away by golden gentle – so I be part of them for a swim within the heat, shallow sea. As we bob on our backs within the night glow, Viola from Tallinn tells me a joke: “It’s raining, and a foreigner asks an Estonian man: ‘Don’t you could have summer season on this nation?’ ‘In fact,’ he replies. ‘However sadly I used to be at work that day.’”
Earlier than I depart the painters, I ask Jaak how the island has modified since his first summer season right here. “This was once the fishing island,” he says. “Now, it’s the vacationer island.” However guests don’t appear to have remodeled Kihnu simply but. Locals could drive fashionable vehicles and vans, however I additionally go Soviet-era motorbikes with facet vehicles. There are a number of outlets and cafes, however they promote smoked dried fish and seal meat in addition to espresso and muffins.
after publication promotion
Exterior her craft store, I meet Elly Karjam, who knits the normal troi sweaters worn by Kihnu’s males, superbly patterned in blue and white wool woven into protecting symbols. “I can knit tons of of jumpers each winter, and every takes me 200 hours,” she says, her fingers clicking in a blur as she works on a brand new masterpiece for the native priest.
Mare tells me that the island solely needs to draw vacationers thinking about tradition and craftsmanship, and that the islanders are musing over whether or not campervans ought to be banned. However tourism additionally permits the subsequent technology to stay on the island, somewhat than depart for the mainland in the hunt for work. And for now, most guests appear to embrace gradual journey, staying with native folks in visitor homes and B&Bs, and visiting to hitch midsummer dances and violin festivals, to be taught to color or knit, or simply to seek out pastoral peace.
The “island of ladies” is a misnomer. As an alternative, Kihnu looks like an old school but balanced place that strikes to the beat of its personal drum (or maybe, the hum of its personal accordion). In winter, cloaked in snow, it have to be a troublesome place to stay. However in summer season, this slow-paced island is a pleasure to discover. As I depart, the rain that makes it so lush and inexperienced returns. The ferry has barely left the harbour earlier than Kihnu is swallowed within the gray sea, a spot of legend as soon as once more.
Kihnu is reached by a one-hour ferry crossing from Munalaid harbour, which is an hour’s bus journey from the coastal city of Pärnu. See visitkihnu.ee. Mare Mätas presents guided excursions of Kihnu in addition to guesthouse lodging on her farm, about £40 an individual an evening, kihnumare.ee. Elly Karjam presents comfortable bedrooms and a conventional sauna on her homestead, the place she additionally sells her knitting and home made crafts, visitestonia.com/en/elly-bed-breakfast-in-kihnu. Pitch a tent at Kihnu Vald campsite, kihnurand.ee