Jumana Emil Abboud: Water, Folklore, and Palestinian Identity

Palestinian artist Jumana Emil Abboud, a citizen of Israel, explores senses of place and ownership through folklore, water sources, and collective storytelling. Born in Galilee, her family emigrated to Canada, but after her father's death, they returned to Palestine. Her work, spanning drawing, video, performance, and workshops, revisits folktales and water lore to address mobility, segregation, and erasure under settler colonialism. She uses materials like pomegranate ink, co-creating with natural elements. Her ongoing water-divining workshops, hosted at Bétonsalon in Paris, Sakiya in Ayn Qiniya near Ramallah, documenta fifteen in Kassel, and Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, involve collective storytelling and writing. A PhD investigates folktales as empowerment devices, focusing on the Arabic word 'ayn' (water source/eye). Collaborations include 'Maskouneh – Inhabited (Hide your Water from the Sun)' with Issa Freij at BALTIC in 2016, responding to Dr. Tawfiq Canaan's 1920 study. Abboud's practice rejects ego and nostalgia, aiming to reclaim land through stories and ethical kinship with the more-than-human. She develops 'virtues' from folktales—trust in God, fortitude, patience, self-denial—as guides. Her work is inherently political in its refusal of erasure, though not directly so. She seeks to reinstate hope within community rather than through denial.