CO-LABHAIRT Thursday June the 9th 2005 saw a successful two day conference held by Pròiseact nan Sgeulachd, the Gaelic Storytelling Project in the Council Chambers Stornoway. The conference brought together delegates and speakers from throughout Scotland to discuss the success of the project and plan future developments. Participants included Gaelic storytellers from different islands and representatives from education, the media, the arts, the Comainn Eachdraidh and funding bodies.
Chrisella Ross, the Sgeulachdan Manager said, “Storytelling is a great cultural resource and the conference was an opportunity to review the development of Gaelic storytelling over the past three years, and report on its progress, its successes and the questions this raises about future development.We are grateful to all of the contributors for their thoughts and ideas and our funders for enabling it to happen.The feedback has been enormously encouraging and will assist us in shaping the next stage of the project. We are also delighted that so many people had such a good time.”
Dr Finlay Macleod opened the debate by highlighting the importance of “the story” at a personal, social, cultural and even political level. He quoted an American press article that implied that the republicans had won the recent US elections because “they told a better story than the Democrats”. Dr Anne Lorne Gillies reported on the success of her work with teenagers in Western Isles Schools, which had generated highly enthusiastic and thoughtful responses from large groups of young people. Prof Alan Sproull had conducted a participant survey which confirmed the impact of the Sgeulachdan Project in a wide range of island communities. Storytelling was clearly seen as important in terms of Gaelic language acquisition, inter-generational contact, heritage interpretation, community cohesion and cultural confidence and there was widespread demand for more.
Duncan Ferguson of Bòrd na Gàidhlig spoke of the importance of storytelling in language development and the role of the arts in the new National Plan for Gaelic. Donald Smith director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh praised the Sgeulachdan Project in a national context and commended its pioneering work in re-launching the “beached boat” of Gaelic storytelling. He went on to highlight the difference between collecting “stories” and encouraging “storytelling, and the signifigance of the Sgeulachdan Project having put down its roots in the Gaelic communities of the Western Isles.
Formalities were forgotten on the Thursday evening when a great session of storytelling and music brought everyone together in the Woodlands Centre. Friday morning brought workshops in which participants discussed the place of storytelling in education, language development, the media, heritage interpretation and the role of Gaelic storytellers in the communities. Following on the positive feedback from the workshops, Pròiseact nan Sgeulachd will develop and expand on its work in the Western Isles and further aim to progress on to promoting Gaelic storytelling at a national and international level.
