For centuries, on a small island covered with forests in the Baltic Sea, women in skirts have been cultivated with red lines, put scarves on their heads, the ground, guard the lighthouse, and preside over religious ceremonies.

As for men on the island of Kino, located 10 kilometers from the coast of Estonia, they sail for weeks or even months, leaving women to take charge of life in one of the last societies in the world led by women.

However, this lifestyle is threatened in Kino, as economic hardship is causing an increasing number of islanders to leave in search of work elsewhere.

"We are all discussing daily while we are sitting at the kitchen table the topic of our continuity," Marais Matas, a tourist guide and heritage official in Kino, told AFP.

Keno's life is centered on ancient traditions and folk songs that fall within a unique culture that has been included by UNESCO in the Oral World Heritage List. "We will lose this life if people no longer stay here," she added with concern.

The island has a registered population of 686 people, but 300 of them reside in it throughout the year, less than half the number it was before the 2008 global financial crisis that struck Estonia at the core.

The 16 square km island includes only paved roads, two small food stores, a museum and a church, as well as a small school with no more than 36 students, while the number was about 100 a few years ago.

Fishing is threatened

"Seals and cormorants pose the biggest problem," said fisherman Margus Larnets, as he smoked fish caught earlier.

These two species are protected after being extinct nearly in the middle of the last century due to poaching. Since then they have returned in large numbers and in turn threaten local fish. A study conducted in 2010 showed that the number of fish caught decreased 10 times, and the number of some other species 100 times.

Margus and Marge, like many, see that they are no longer able to earn a living from the sea.

Like many others, they are meeting their food needs through animal husbandry and land cultivation. Marais Matas explains that working wool and knitting, which is a traditional way of earning a living, is no longer economically feasible, stressing that "all these matters that were important in the past are not the same now." Many fishermen left the island in search of work in Norway or Finland.

Memories meet

During a weekly morning meeting, 12 Keno women exchange novelties, rumors and memories around a table on which salted fish, biscuits and chocolate were placed. They talk about the men who chose to stay on the island, and are now going into areas that were previously reserved for women.

"Oscar was one of the first men to start working in the fields," says Mirasi-Salameh.

On the island, it is reported that Salem, a female figure with a lot of weight, insisted that her husband, Oscar, come to work with her on the farm when they were 25 years old. "We were laughing to see a man working with us in the field," said another woman recalled.

This distinctive lifestyle attracts tourists. 30,000 people visit the island, half of them are Estonia and the other half are from Europe and Asia. In the absence of hotels and restaurants, the islanders receive these guests in their homes. However, tourism only thrives in the summer.

Blue magic

The roles of women and men may have changed, but there is still a task for women to preserve Keno's centuries-old culture.

When men went out to the sea, women, according to tradition, organized festivals, funerals, and marriages in ancient and sophisticated ceremonies, sometimes lasting for several days.
Weddings in Keno are unique and punctuated by three days of music, dance and rituals prior to the Christian era, including blue magic, which has protective benefits according to local tradition and is based on covering the bride's head with a white cloth embroidered in red that provides her with supernatural protection until reaching her husband's home.

Folk songs with mastery of violin or accordion are necessary qualifications for women who often wear a skirt with red stripes on the island of Kino. This opinion is shared by well-known singer Vervi Koster in Estonia. The 92-year-old Coaster is the embodiment of the distinctive spirit of Keno women.

In the living room of her home, she recounts her years of work in the icy seawater and in the plowing of the field, and she only puts wool socks on her feet. "The situation was very harsh," she says. But she knew comfort and fame thanks to 400 songs that focused on the island's life, nature and love in particular.

Although many people leave the island, some return to it. Violinist Maria Milkson returned to Keno after her college studies transferring the musical heritage to the island's children in a cultural center made of wood.

She says that the internet and the new phrase, which comes twice a day, have revolutionized the island's life. "Is this local culture capable of facing the new world?" "We have to wait to know that."