Category: Gaidhlig

We have created a dedicated “AAS Conference Recordings” page, following the “Togail ar Guthan/Raising our Voices” hybrid conference and webinar for the Aire air Sunnd project. You can access seven different videos on the page, each corresponding to a separate session within the overall programme. A detailed table gives links to all the individual sessions simply by clicking on the relevant blue title or video thumbnail.

It was a very full day, with a good mix of formats – including talks, discussions, and video inserts – with both local and remote speakers and participants representing a wide range of interests, and Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, delivered a keynote message in Gaelic and English. Island Voices gets a special mention in Session 6, on “Communities working with Researchers”, in which Gordon Wells talks briefly about the project and its aims at 4.57, and allows himself an even shorter wee rant at 45.22 on community-university links!

You can also click and download the PDF pictured below, which has all the same links embedded in a single document.

And anyone yearning for an immersive “box-set” experience(!) can view all sessions in an unbroken sequence on this YouTube playlist.

Switching between Gaelic and English, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes addresses the “Togail ar Guthan” (“Raising our Voices”) open access webinar for the North Uist Historical Society’s “Aire air Sunnd“ wellbeing project.

If you can’t find five minutes to watch and hear her full talk in real time, here are some key extracts converted into the written word:

“…Local knowledge is the lifeblood of our history, our heritage, our environment…

…That is the area where voices especially need to be heard, to protect and promote the things that you have inherited, that have been passed down to you by generations that have gone before you…

…You have a unique history, you have an archaeology, your heritage is in the stones around you – stones which tell stories of clearance, of emigration, of conflict, which show evidence of settlement, of survival, of faith, and of learning. We need to hear your voices tell those stories before they’re forgotten…

…North Uist has a strong cultural life that looks back, but there’s a strong cultural life that is very much about the present, through song and poetry. We can be sure that wherever Gaelic songs are sung, those of Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna will often be included, looking to the past. But yet more recently, we also hear international artists such as Julie Fowlis and Runrig who also have their roots in North Uist, and whose songs are sung by many of the young today, at festivals and local shows. They “raise their voices” as a celebration of what has been handed down to them – their heritage, their cultural life, which is anchored and rooted in North Uist…”

We have created CC subtitles for the Gaelic sections of Ms Forbes’s talk. Viewers can access auto-translations into other languages of their choice, including English, via the YouTube settings wheel.

More videos from Phase Two of this Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath project can be found on our website here: https://guthan.wordpress.com/aire-air-sunnd/aas-phase-2-videos/

Further background is available here: https://guthan.wordpress.com/aire-air-sunnd/

The full programme for “Togail ar Guthan” is here: https://guthan.wordpress.com/2024/09/27/togail-ar-guthan/

“Hearing the sounds of Gaelic did something for my wellbeing.”

“Cathie Laing, a founder member of the Aire air Sunnd Heritage and Wellbeing group, speaks in both languages about the ways in which this group developed and organised itself, from small beginnings, to use heritage to meet a new range of community need and audience, through conversation, a cup of tea, story and music.”

Here she speaks in Gaelic.

(Auto-translation of the optional CC subtitles is available through the YouTube Setting Wheel.)

She speaks in English in this clip.

(CEUT, The North Uist Historical Society, is grateful to MG Alba’s Trainee Community Content Creator, Fiona MacIsaac, for recording and editing these videos.)

This series of videos for the Aire air Sunnd Wellbeing group is cumulatively collected on the dedicated Phase 2 Videos page.