Duilich, chan eil seo ri fhaighinn ach sa Bheurla an-dràsta.
We are really excited to announce that The School of Plural Futures is back for its third year, with a new group of young folk local to Skye and Lochalsh. We are really honoured to be working with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to support the School over the next three years, we greatly appreciate their invaluable support in allowing the continuation of our work.
Since 2021, the School has worked alongside visual artist Emmie McLuskey to build a space to speak about the reality and potential of life in Skye and Lochalsh, focusing on the climate crisis and its intersections with social justice.
The school takes the form of a series of gatherings– hosted in village halls and community spaces across the whole of Skye and Lochalsh, the school is a space to think and create responses to local and global challenges facing young people. We ask questions and learn together about landscape, stories, tradition, culture and language. We work with a host of local and international guest speakers from across all fields including art, music, history, literature, activism, agriculture and science.
The school runs throughout the year and is now in its third cycle. Take a look at Year one, Year two and Year three to see what’s been happening, and what’s coming up.
Between 19 – 21st November we will be hosting our second meeting as a new group. This session of the School is a very special one, as we will be joined by a host of amazing local and international guests, speakers, old and new friends of the School; Gaelic singer Anne Martin, archivist Catherine MacPhee, writer Iain MacKinnon, the Arika team, and five members of the Karrabing Film Collective. Karrabing consists of over 50 members, all but one Indigenous stakeholders for their land around Anson Bay, north of Darwin, Australia.
As part of Karrabing’s three day residency with ATLAS, the group will take part in School sessions across the whole of Skye and Lochalsh. Beginning in the home of Gaelic singer Anne Martin, we will share food, tell stories and hear music at Kilmuir Village Hall.
Anne has sung and researched Gaelic song since she was a child, being born and brought up in Trotternish on the Isle of Skye where she learnt a wealth of her tradition from older neighbours and relatives.
She is equally at home performing at large festivals, concert halls, or small and intimate village halls and tutors Gaelic song, having run workshops in a wide variety of places from downtown Philadelphia colleges to small Scottish island schools.
She has toured America, Australia, Asia and Europe and has sung at many of the Scottish festivals including Celtic Connections, Belladrum, Blas and Under Canvas
Although firmly rooted in her tradition, she has also worked on many unique collaborations, from projects with urban based electronica sound artists and beatboxers, to Indian classical composers, and the acclaimed ‘An Tinne’ which linked Scotland, and both immigrant and indigenous Australia.
She is passionate about culture, ‘sense of place’, the story and roots of the song, as well as community development and how music and art can assist this.
On Wednesday 20th November we will start our day in Skye and Lochalsh’s archive with archivist Catherine MacPhee and writer Iain MacKinnon.
Catherine MacPhee, a good friend of the School of Plural Futures has worked at the archive centre since 2019. Growing up in Skye she feels a deep connection to the island and the importance of tradition bearing. Her passion for creating positive change in communities she works with through culture and heritage for her is a form of activism. Coming from a family of tradition bearers, she hopes to share many powerful stories of the area in order to create meaningful change and a hopeful future for the Highlands and Islands.
Iain MacKinnon, another friend of the School, works at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. Iain belongs to a crofting family, and to the Gaelic culture indigenous to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. His work seeks to understand and support traditional knowledge systems and land based cultural practices of Scottish Gaels, and he hopes his research can contribute and lead to new self understanding among peoples and to the reconstitution and renewal of traditional worlds.
As part of Karrabing’s visit we will be hosting an evening of film and conversation at the Skye Gatherings Hall on Wednesday 20th November 7 – 8:30PM. This visit is part of a longer trip to Scotland for the Karrabing who will be sharing their work as part of Arika Festival in Glasgow between 14th – 17th November as well as with us in Skye on Wednesday 20th November. Here is the link via the ATLAS website, please invite all your friends and family along, it’s free, open to all, everyone welcome.
We are so happy to be joined by Rex, Aiden, Kieran and Beth from Karrabing, along with one of their key institutional allies in negotiating land claims, Ben, and Barry and Bryony from Arika. We look forward to an insightful few days.
Our huge thanks and appreciation to Barry, Bryony, Siobhan and Jade from Arika Festival, Eilidh Rankin from Kilmuir Hall, Anne Martin, Iain MacKinnon, Catherine MacPhee, Rex Sing, Aiden Sing, Kieran Sing, Elizabeth Povinelli and Ben Scambury for their support in bringing this session together.
