What is a Kornati “buletin” (note)?

Before all possible available forms of our time of fast communication, on the Kornati archipelago and Murter, the word was transmitted remotely by small written messages sent from man to man for man, from island to island. They folded in a specific way.

The paper most often used for these messages was the kind that could be found on the islands, which, of course, were in short supply at that time.

It was most often a cover of cement; umber, brownish paper cut from one of five layers of a cement bag.

This way of managing shows the island's frugality by which all usable material was valued and circulated as long as it could be used.

Thus, the Kornati "buletin" was made of paper wrapping construction material. It then served as a paper for writing and conveying a message. And after that, because of the bending method, it could easily be used to store some seed in it, perhaps Petrus seeds. In the circulation spirit, this brown paper could be used for something similar even when those seeds were used up. In the end, they would certainly not throw it in the trash, but more likely in the fire.

In English, there is the word "upcycling" which in Croatian can be explained under "reuse". But in the Kornati and Dalmatia in general, this awareness is built into the word "škapulati". "Škapulati" a material or object would mean saving, and also rescuing or freeing.

The Kornati "buletin" was sent as a message itself, but even more often as a message to track a shipment. For example, if a basket of groceries was sent from Murter to the Kornati, it was accompanied by an attached "buletin". If they didn't have a leash to tie the "buletin", they use a piece of the torn fishing net instead. If a freshly made "puina" (sheep's milk curd) was sent from the Kornati to Murter in a piece of cloth with ends tied in knots, hung on a nail in a boat, it would be accompanied by a "buletin" with a message to whom the "puina" should be taken or sold.

As the time of writing the "buletin" disappeared, the "buletin" resurrected as an interpreted form on the narrative platform Tea Party at the lighthouse. Thus, conveying the story of the Kornati islands and a piece of paper that does not stop circulating, it is present as an inspiration in Destina's "buletini".