Our collaborator, Marina Yazbek Dias Peres, has excelled herself in her mission to bring Island Voices documentaries to Portuguese speakers around the world, this time re-rendering two of our most recent productions from our Extensions page! Lovely work, Marina!
“Jamaicana no País de Gales” offers a documentary slice of Jamaican life in Wales, featuring Audrey West, poet, artist, and community worker.
And “Shetlandês em Glasgow” gives us a parallel treatment of Shetland poet Christie Williamson’s life in Glasgow.
Clilstore units have also been created for each of these films. You can simultaneously view the films and read the transcripts for Audrey here, and for Christie here.
“So, beauty and tenderness and a way to express – that is really what I want to say.”
Black throated diver or arctic loon (Gavia arctica) swimming on a loch, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides, Scotland By Alex Cooper
“Loriana Pauli speaks movingly of the visceral pain she feels, as an ornithologist and eco-warrior, at the loss of species from Berneray and North Uist: in particular, the Black-throated Diver, alongside other domestic and shoreline birds. ‘Solastalgia’, (coined from ‘Nostalgia’), is a term which represents a new form of psychological distress caused by all the ecological changes people suffer because of the climate crisis. How do we cope with this, she asks the Aire air Sunnd heritage wellbeing group?”
Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, North Uist Historical Society, is grateful to MG Alba’s Trainee Community Content Creator, Fiona MacIsaac, for recording and editing this video.
This series of videos for the Aire air Sunnd Wellbeing group is cumulatively collected on the dedicated Phase 2 Videos page.
Tha Comataidh an Ionmhais aig Taigh an Ròid ag iarraidh dàileachadh air cruthachadh Choimiseanairean ùra ann an Alba Tha Comataidh an Ionmhais is Rianachd Phoblaich aig Taigh an Ròid air dàileachadh iarraidh air cruthachadh choimiseanairean ùra sam bith no buidhnean den leithid ann an Alba. Tha a’ chomataidh ag ràdh gun cuala iad fianais làidir … Leugh an corr de Comataidh phàrlamaideach ag iarraidh dàileachadh air cruthachadh choimiseanairean ùra
Chan eil diù a’ choin agam do glainead na Gàidhlig. Bidh cànanan daonnan a’ gabhail iasad air faclan is abairtean bho chànanan eile. ’S e gnìomh cudromach, àbhaisteach a th’ ann ann am mion-fhàs cànain sam bith. ’S mar sin, nuair a thig e gu bruidhinn anns a’ Ghàidhlig mu rian de rudan a tha ag obair ri chèile, coltach ris a h-uile duine eile, cleachdaidh mi am facal-iasaid siostam, agus gur math a fhreagras e.
Ach an latha eile, thàinig mi tarsaing air facal ùr ann an Dwelly a’ riochdachadh an aon bhun-bheachd: comh-eagar, agus thaitinn e leam cho mòr, saoilidh mi gun tòisich mi a chleachdadh an àite siostam, aig amannan co-dhiù. Is toil leam comh-eagar air sàillibh ’s gu bheil ciall an fhacail cho follaiseach bho chiall an dà eileamaid dheth: rudan air an eagrachadh ri chèile, .i. siostam.
Chan e facal cumanta a th’ ann, gun teagamh. Cha do lorg mi aon iomradh air ann an DASG. Ach tha e reusanta cumanta ann an Gàidhlig na h-Èireann, a’ ciallachadh co-òrdanachadh an sin. An aon rud, ge-tà: nuair a chanas mi fhìn e, gu nàdarra, bidh mi a’ cur a’ bheuma air a’ chiad lide. Chan eil fhios agam a bheil sin traidiseanta gus nach eil, ach tha e a’ faireachdainn ceart, agus mar sin, nuair a chleachdas mi ann sgrìobhadh e, saoilidh mi gun litrich mi mar aon fhacal e: coimheagar.
In the third recorded talk to the “Aire air Sunnd” Wellbeing group, Paul McCallum, singer, tutor, Uist Gaelic choir leader and composer extraordinaire explores the notions of the spiritual and ’sacred’ in Uist.
“Their interconnectedness with the environment, local faiths and culture are central to both his thinking and his profound involvement with the music and song of the island. He sings one of his own compositions, epitomising all these inseparable links and explains how his background and that of other looked-after children indicates the nurturing and welcoming an island community has given him.”
CEUT is grateful to MG Alba’s Trainee Community Content Creator, Fiona MacIsaac, for recording and editing this video.
This series of videos for the Aire air Sunnd Wellbeing group is cumulatively collected on the dedicated Phase 2 Videos page.
Here’s the fifth of our series of blogposts by Mary Morrison, in which she reflects on the Aire Air Sunnd project led by Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath. As with her previous posts, comments are welcome!
Drawing by John from the AAS Caraidean Uibhist workshops
Mary writes:
Professor Stewart Angus. ‘Coastal Changes on North Uist.’
‘You might be able to do more than I can’.
On the evening of July 10th, as part of our Heritage, Gaelic and Wellbeing project, ‘Aire Air Sunnd’, a packed room of members of Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath were privileged to have an evening visit from Professor Stewart Angus. He gave us an impressive talk about his extensive, longitudinal research into ‘Coastal Changes in North Uist’, using a comprehensive array of historical sources, photographs, maps and diagrams to illustrate his points. Since he has worked across the Long Island, comparisons were offered to his own and others’ collections of data from along the Hebridean coasts, including references to Lewis, Harris, Benbecula and South Uist.
Professor Angus encouraged the audience to use research findings and make their community voices heard in governmental and environmental circles. He seemed to feel that, as a community, we have a significant role to play here, both alongside the scientific data, as well as in the promotion of the research recommendations these have generated. He reiterated throughout the evening that he felt the community voice might persuade those in power to listen to and to pay attention to the scientific data?
(One of the most strongly voiced concerns the ‘AAS’ project’s community members’ survey in 2023 had raised was that local voices were not being heard at local or national levels.) We think, as a project, and as a seemingly small band of electors, these findings will need to be central to our project on-line conference early in October, ‘Making our Voices Heard’.
Professor Angus stressed the importance of ‘lived’ local knowledge, such as the finds of saddle querns amongst the shingle banks made by lobster fishermen, the relevance of coastal or rock placenames, some even referring to attempts in the past to build sluice gates to prevent the sea waters entering the freshwater lochs. One reef, Sgeir Husabost, is all that remains today of an ancient township, mentioned in The Charter of Inchaffrey, but lost to the sea. This lay close to Baleshare, or Baile Sear, (Eastern Township), whose name itself implies that maybe it was once two, separated townships.
Some of the key points Professor Angus made are summarised as follows, (with my apologies as a mere citizen scientist for any misinterpretations):
Global warming does not always mean the same as local warming.
Uist has the highest rate of relative sea level rise in relation to land in Scotland.
Winter rain is predicted to rise by 45%. Even the levels of low tides are rising.
The land is also rising, although, because of rainfall here, and our topology, the mainland of Scotland is sinking faster, by 6mm a year.
Moving dunes have a key role to play in adaptation to these rising sea levels; preserving the integrity of their ridges and the breadth of these are very important.
The coast and dunes move on every tide; they provide a natural structure for warding off the ocean. Evidence shows the dunes work better than any built structure in dampening the effects of high tides and storms – not losing sand but redepositing it, often in useful ways, since sand absorbs wave energy well.
The wider the dune structure, the more protection it provides. The scale of the impact is determined by the height of the waves, which in turn is the result of atmospheric pressure, astronomical pressure, the nature of the weather and the tide.
Built structures, such as walls, tend to be less useful: it may be better to work with respect for the ways the environment works itself and avoid building walls?
It may also be important that no rubbish of any kind should be buried within the dunes. Whatever is buried will be released back onto the shore at some stage – there is some alarming evidence that this is still happening today.
It is also important that we try to avoid saltwater getting into the freshwater lochs through breaches in the dunes. In two lochs, North Uist has the highest national score for protected organisms, (such as a very rare kind of cockle or the birds nest stonewort), boasting seven out of the eight rarest species.
There are other important ways of dampening wave energy, such as North Uist’s extensive kelp fields, our extended shallow horizontal seabed, our shingle bank deposits and seaweed on the shore.
Those who collect our ‘truly wonderful’ seaweed are advised to take this from as low down the beach as possible. Leaving a ridge of seaweed high on the shore encourages the very fertile insect and beetle life to propagate rapidly in the heat of its decay, providing essential food for wading birds.
The seeds within the tangle higher up the beach will also be nurtured, having time to bed themselves into the sand, thus trapping it and preventing it from blowing. This ridge of seaweed should be allowed to rest, ideally, for at least two years.
The talk then followed the North Uist coastline in considerable detail revealing how differently the shorelines were responding to local wave energy and tidal forces, such as refraction, accretion and storms. There are some puzzling results here, especially at Sollas, where the sand appears to be moving west and at Griminish, where the movement appears to be to the east! Although Baleshare has the highest ground elevation on North Uist, it lacks a dune ridge, making it more susceptible to flooding.
(Once we have transcribed the talk in full, we hope to profile more of the individual detail alongside the talk’s valuable slides on the CEUT website.)
Professor Angus also referred to the importance of a wide range of local historical written resources, some reaching back to mediaeval times; these can provide critical evidence for the shifts in our North Uist coastline over time. One of the earliest Gaelic sources he mentioned was John MacCodrum, born in Ard na Runair, and Alaistair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alasdair_mac_Mhaighstir_Alasdair both writing eloquently about the machair, although, in the case of MacCodrum, as an official bard, he may have been susceptible to poetic licence and the need to please Sir James Macdonald of Sleat.
A recent paper by himself and Dr Hanson was referred to, and the recommendations in this are probably those we should be using to inform ourselves when we raise our concerns more widely in Aire air Sunnd’s final on-line conference early in October. Professor Stewart’s final message reiterated
Respect the ability of the dunes to move freely
Protect the vast kelp bed lying west of North Uist
Encourage the height of the dunes – maximise the natural function of the coast
Try to keep the grazing animals away from the edges of the dunes.
Gordon Wells talks about his view of the importance of stories and the place for Gaelic to the Wellbeing group in the Aire air Sunnd project led by Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath (North Uist Historical Society). He has recorded English and Gaelic versions of this talk. Click on any link below to get to the YouTube video.
Both English and Gaelic talks can also be viewed in two parts each. In part 1 Gordon recounts a story about his uncle, Norman Maclellan, supplemented with some family photos. In part 2 he offers some general thoughts and reflections, particularly in relation to language, arising from this family story. The Gaelic parts are accompanied by optional YouTube subtitles, which can further be auto-translated into the language of your choice through the YouTube settings wheel.
Tha Comataidh Ionmhais Taigh an Ròid a’ tadhal air Oilthigh Dhùn Dè gus ionnsachadh mu na tha saidheansan-beatha a’ cur ris an eaconamaidh Tadhlaidh BPA bho Chomataidh Ionmhais is Rianachd Phoblaich Pàrlamaid na h-Alba air Oilthigh Dhùn Dè nas fhaide an-diugh (Diardaoin 29 Lùnastal). Ionnsaichidh a’ chomataidh thar-phàrtaidh de BPA mun chuideachadh a dh’fhaodas rannsachadh … Leugh an corr de Fios naidheachd: Comataidh an Iomhais ann an Dùn Dè
Bha cothrom agam o chionn ghoirid tadhal air àite tarraingeach dìreach air cùl nam bailtean, meanbh-thaigh-staile ùr, Toulvaddie, faisg air Easter Airfield. Rinn mi agallamh leis an stèidheadair, agus fhuair mi a-mach gu bheil rudan annasach gu leòr a thaobh an taigh-staile seo.
Sa chiad àite, ‘s e boireannach a stèidhich e, Heather Nelson, bho theaghlach tuathanach às an sgìre – a chiad bhoireannach a rinn seo o chionn Helen Cumming ann an Cardhu ann an 1811. Bha Heather ag obair ann an dreuchd gu tur eile, mar cho-stèidheadair companaidh-riochdachaidh telebhisein còmhla ris an duine aice, Bobby, ach bha riamh aisling aice an t-uisge-beatha aice fhèin a chruthachadh. Mar a thuirt i, chuir e iongnadh oirre dè cho eadar-dhealaichte ‘s a tha blas gach uile uisge-beatha, ged nach eil ach na h-aon trì grìdheidean (uisge, eòrna is beirm) anns gach seòrsa. Bha i airson faighinn a-mach dè na cothroman a bhiodh aice sin a stiùireadh i fhèin. Bha ceum aice ann an Ceimigeachd, ach san eadar-àm fhuair i teisteanasan ann an grùdaireachd is stailigeadh.
Tha boireannaich eile ag obair ann an saoghal uisge-beatha san latha an-diugh, ach chan eil tè eile ann a stiùireas am pròiseas gu lèir, mar a nì Heather, no a tha an sàs anns an obair phractaigeach aig gach ceum, bho ròghnachadh an eòrna gu cur leubailean air na botail. Tha an dealas, an cùram agus a’ mhoit aice follaiseach.
Heather, Bobby & Daisy
An darna rud a tha cho inntinneach, ‘s e gun do thog Heather agus an teaghlach aice an taigh-staile gu ìre mhòr iad fhèin. Tha e air làrach HMS Owl, raon-adhair an nèibhidh san Darna Chogadh, far an robh uair tuathanas beag Toulvaddie a bha le ginealaichean na bu tràithe teaghlach Heather. (Thàinig an t-ainm às a’ Ghàidhlig toll a’ mhadaidh.) Air sgàth dàlach a thaobh cead-planaidh agus le clìoradh an làraich, agus dàlach a bharrachd le Covid a dh’adhbharaich trioblaidean le stuth-togail is call cheann-latha le companaidhean-togail, b’ fheudar dhan teaghlach an obair a dhèanamh iad fhèin – drèanaichean a chladhadh, ùrlaran a leagail, ballachan a thogail agus fiù ‘s mullach an togalaich-riochdachaidh a chur suas: ionnsachadh le bhith ga dhèanamh. Faodaidh sibh na ceumannan uile fhaicinn air làrach-lìn an taigh-staile. Euchd fìor dhrùidhteach – ach bha na tuathanaich (mar na h-iasgairean) riamh cleachte ri an làmh a chur ri obair sam bith.
A-nis tha an taigh-staile ag obair is fosgailte dhan phoball, is iad uile gan cumail a’ dol ann an dòighean eile. Tha an obair-riochdachaidh agus am bar beag san aon talla mhòr, air a dhealabhachadh gu grinn. Tha measgachadh stàillinn deàrrsaich, fiodha is copair fìor àlainn, agus tha cuimhneachain thlachdmhor nan làithean a dh’fhalbh ann, le deasg seann-fhasanta agus caibineat-taisbeanaidh fiodha. Tha Heather gu math mothachail air ar dualchas stailigidh agus an geall air na dòighean-obrach traidiseanta aithneachadh – le gach rud air a dhèanamh a làimh. Chan eil dad meacanaigeach an seo. Gheibh gach ceum ùine gu leòr cuideachd, gus leigeil leis an spiorad leasachadh gu buileach. ‘S e cridhe an taigh-staile a tha anns an dà stail copair, làmh-òrdairichte, beag ach àlainn.
Ged a bheir e ùine mhòr gus am bi a chiad mhac na braiche abaich is anns a’ bhotal, tha an spiorad ùr-dhèanta ri fhaighinn mar-thà. Tha na baraillean daraich, làn uisge-beatha braiche ag aoiseachadh, gan stòradh air an làrach agus faodar an ceannachd is glèidheadh ro làimh.
Bidh sibh a’ faighinn fiosrachadh mionaideach mu eachdraidh an taigh-staile agus mu mar a nithar an t-uisge-beatha nuair a bhucas sibh fear de na tursan fìor phearsanta aca – faodaidh mi am moladh. A bharrachd air am bar beag anns an talla, tha gàrradh snog agus beingean is bùird a-muigh. Tha e math gnothachas-teaghlaich traidiseanta den leithid fhaicinn san sgìre againn, am meadhan tìr òir an eòrna Rois an Ear.
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Toulvaddie Distillery
I recently had the chance to visit a fascinating place right behind the Seaboard Villages, close to Easter Airfield – a new micro-distillery, Toulvaddie. I interviewed the founder and discovered there are quite a few unusual features about this distillery.
The first is that it was founded by a woman, Heather Nelson, from a farming family in the area – the first woman to do this since Helen Cumming of Cardhu in 1811. Heather was working in a different field altogether, as co-founder of a television production compamy with her husband Bobby, but she always dreamed of creating her own whisky. As she says, it fascinated her how different the taste of every single whisky is, although they all have only the same three ingredients – water, barley and yeast. She wanted to find out how she could influence this herself. She had already studied chemistry, but in the meantime she has gained qualifications in brewing and distilling.
There are other women working in the whisky industry nowadays, but none of them is in complete charge of the whole process, nor themselves doing the practical work at each stage as Heather is, everything from selecting the barley to labelling the bottles. Her passion, care and pride in her product are evident.
Heather’s parents, David and Shiela Mackenzie
The second unusual thing is that Heather and her family basically built the distillery themselves. It’s on the site of the former naval airbase HMS Owl, and previously was on the small farm of Toulvaddie owned by earlier generations of Heather’s family. (The name comes from Gaelic toll a’ mhadaidh, and means hound’s, or possibly wolf’s, den.) Due to delays in planning permission and clearing the site, and then Covid meaning further delays with materials, and lost slots with contractors, the family ended up digging drains, laying floors, putting up the walls and even roofing the production building, learning on the job. You can follow the various stages on their website. An impressive achievement – but then farming (and fishing) folk are used to turning their hand to anything.
Now the distillery is in full operation and open to the public, still keeping them all busy. The production, along with a small bar, is all in the one big hall, and is beautifully laid out. The mixture of gleaming steel, wood, and copper is very attractive, and there are charming reminders of the past in the old desk and the wooden display cabinet. Heather is very aware of tradition and keen to do things in a way that pays tribute to the old days of distilling, everything done by hand. Nothing here is mechanical. Each stage is also given plenty of time, allowing the spirit to develop fully. The two hand-hammered copper pot stills are the heart of the distillery, small but beautiful.
Although it will take time to mature and bottle the first bottles of malt, the new-make spirit is available to buy already. The oak casks with the maturing malt are being stored on site and can themselves be bought in advance.
You’ll get the full details of the story of the distillery and how the whisky is made during one of their very personal tours – I can highly recommend them. As well as the small bar on site, there’s a lovely garden and seating area outside. It’s good to see a family business in this traditional industry established in our own local area, surrounded by the golden Easter Ross barley fields.
A series of short videos is planned for public release by the Aire Air Sunnd (AAS) Wellbeing Group. These record aspects of a series of sessions (physical and virtual) held in Phase Two of the project. Island Voices is happy to provide the online platform for these through our YouTube channel.
In the first video, Jessica Wood, CEUT‘s co-researcher from Aberdeen University, describes how the Wellbeing Workshops were shaped, sharing some of the important findings from the co-created 2023 community survey. “These in turn informed the follow-on community-led research, demonstrating how community members can become researchers themselves through learning from working alongside professional researchers.”
Black throated diver or arctic loon (Gavia arctica) swimming on a loch, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides, Scotland By 
Drawing by John from the AAS Caraidean Uibhist workshops
