Erica Judd
Selkies Dance

As a girl/woman living on the coast of our Island State, the connection between the ocean and the land has always been an important part of my psyche.

Selkies are the seal-maidens of Scotland and Ireland, with strikingly similar beings also present in the cultures of the Chinook peoples in North America and in Scandinavia.

Beings from the faerie realm are a highly focused representation of humanity’s condition: its hopes, dreams and fears. They are also an integral component of the natural world, a world for which humanity needs to rediscover reverence.

Selkies live as seals in the ocean but come ashore, shed their sealskins, and dance in the form of beautiful maidens. They are the embodiment of the bond between ocean and land, living in harmony with both.

The island:

The ocean. The land. In harmony.

Selkies also remind us that sometimes we need to shed our everyday skins and dance as if no-one is watching.