16 Portrait
Joseph Bodénès, known as Job, seaweed harvester of the islands
Job Bodénès, bezhinaer war an inizi
Orphaned at the age of five by a father who died in 1916 (Dardanelles), Job Bodénès, from Lilia, set out for the islands at fourteen under the guidance of an uncle. It was the heroic age of the Pigouillers, the seaweed harvesters who, from late February to September, set off to harvest the seaweed in the islands of the Molène archipelago.
Forty seasons on the islands, interrupted only by his national service and by mobilisation in 1940. So many days of harsh toil ending in a wretched shack where hammocks hung!
At the end of the summer of 1969, aged fifty-nine, Job left Molène for good to set course for Lilia aboard La Fleur des îles, the boat of Paul Salaün, with whom he crewed.
In retirement, with the cart drawn by Guel, who had replaced Martin, dead on the island, he would go on cutting black seaweed.