Ocean Arts School

About Ocean Arts School

Learning from coast, community, and culture

The Ocean Arts School reimagines education with Mukkuvar Indigenous coastal children – grounded in their lives, knowledge, and environment.

Community = Classroom

The project employed a place-based and culturally sustaining approach, rooted in both Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) and relevant scientific understanding. Indigenous fishers, fathers, and elders are teachers. Their knowledge of the sea – tides, seasons, ecology, and ethics – shapes learning and restores dignity to community knowledge.

Art is Knowledge

Boat painting, sea sand art, story telling, and visual documentation are not extras – they are how children learn, express, and connect.

Learn by Living

Children feel the monsoon, hear the sea, and read the waves. These experiences connect to ideas like sustainable fishing, biodiversity, and ocean health.

Belonging First

Rooted in ILK, connected to science, and informed by inclusive learning frameworks – this approach ensures every child belongs.

Grand Ocean Arts Exhibition recap video

Celebrating Our Ocean: Ocean Arts School Exhibition
BlueGreen Coastal Resources proudly hosted the Ocean Arts School Exhibition-a vibrant two-day celebration of ocean life, community wisdom, and our children’s creativity. Held at St. Xavier’s College, Thumba, in the Fr. Aikkara Auditorium, this event brought together art, culture, and environmental stewardship.
Art by Children, For the Ocean
What made this exhibition truly special was the display of artworks created by children from the Mukkuvar Indigenous community. Through their vibrant paintings and artistic expressions, these young voices powerfully advocated for the ocean, marine life, and our community’s cultural heritage. Their artwork was inspired by lessons from local fishers and their own lived experiences.
Event Highlights:
The urgent need to protect our ocean
Mukkuvar community Indigenous knowledge systems, including ‘kanicam,’ and the lived experiences of our traditional fishing community.
Sustainable fishing practices and ocean stewardship.
The interconnected lives of people, marine ecosystems, and future generations.
Over 350 artworks were showcased, transforming the venue into a living narrative of the ocean as seen through the eyes and imagination of children.
Exhibition Day Highlights
The exhibition was inaugurated by Dr. Biju Kumar, Vice Chancellor of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS). Dr. Johson Jament, Director of BlueGreen, delivered the felicitation address and introduced the Ocean Arts School initiative.
Keynote and felicitation addresses were delivered by Smt. Jolly Pathrose (Pothencode Block Panchayath President), Smt. Shruthymol (Poonthura Ward Councillor), Shri. Vincent N (Secretary, Association of Artisanal Fishers), and Fr. Biju (Bursar, St. Xavier’s College).
Community activists and academics, Dr. Lisba Yesudas and D. Anil Kumar from the Department of Malayalam and Mass Communication at St. Xavier’s College, also shared their perspectives, enriching the event with insightful dialogue.
A special moment was the release of the Ocean Arts School Exhibition Book by Dr. Biju Kumar, received by Shri Shibu Dasan, President of the Association of Artisanal Fishers.
The event brought together activists, academics, researchers, students, artists, and community members, making it a vibrant platform for dialogue, learning, and collective action.
Looking Forward
This exhibition reaffirms that art is a powerful language for environmental awareness and community identity. The voices of our children preserve indigenous knowledge, stories of the sea, resilience, and hope for a sustainable future.
BlueGreen extends heartfelt gratitude to every child artist, community member, volunteer, and supporter who made this initiative possible

Ocean Arts School

Learning from Coast, Community, and Culture

We are pleased to inform you that we successfully conducted another Ocean Arts exhibition at the Art Museum, Trivandrum, on 16, 17, and 18 July 2026. We exhibited the artwork of coastal children aged 8 to 15 years from Marianad and Poonthura, and this time, the artwork of coastal children from Pulluvila village also joined our Ocean Art exhibition journey. We had a really great time, and there were a lot of enthusiastic children, youngsters, teachers, professionals, academics, scientists, international people, and other professionals who came and joined us. They not only saw the artwork; they also shared their experiences about the ocean and how the work inspired them to build new knowledge in their minds and the mainstream. They shared many ideas and willingly shared their enthusiasm for collaborative work in the future. We send a huge thank you to those who made an effort to come and join us and interact with our little artists. Some people missed the artwork exhibition, for whom we will plan an exhibition in the future. Please keep an eye on our website and social media for upcoming updates.

For the Mukkuvar marine fisher community of South Kerala, location is perceived rather than measured. Kanicam, their Indigenous knowledge system, is an ecological, cosmological, and ethical framework connecting people, land, sea, rivers, and sky. It is read in the pull of nets and the signals that kadalamma (sea mother) gives to those who listen.

In “Reviving the Mukkuvar Kanicam,” the authors document this living system and the Ocean Arts School working to carry it to the next generation.

Read the full story on: https://terralingua.org/stories/reviving-the-mukkuvar-kanicam/