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The School of Plural Futures Podcast

30 Cèitean 2025, 10:00
Online Event
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Sgeulachdan Beul-aithris Strì an Fhearainn Cànan Tourism
Image from School of Plural Futures workshop in Raasay, 2024

ATLAS Arts’ The School of Plural Futures is an alternative education project led by, and for, young people local to Skye, Lochalsh and Raasay. On 30 May 2025, they launch a new 3‑part podcast series in partnership with Radio Skye.

Since 2021, The School of Plural Futures has worked alongside visual artist Emmie McLuskey, to organise a series of gatherings – hosted in village halls and community spaces across the whole of Skye and Lochalsh, creating responses to local and global challenges facing young people. The group ask questions and learn together about landscape, stories, tradition, culture and language, working with a host of local and international guest speakers from across all fields including art, music, history, literature, activism, agriculture and science.

In 2024, the group decided to produce a new three-part podcast, exploring some of the issues that matter most to them, with guidance and editorial support from audio producers Alannah Chance and Jesse Lou Lawson. The resulting podcasts offer an insight into the people, places and conversations of the area and their much needed perspectives on issues including Gaelic, crofting, culture and history.

Launch schedule and events

The podcasts will be launched on Radio Skye, with the first two broadcast from 10am on Friday 30 May and the third on their YouthSPACE slot on Saturday 31 May from 5pm. They will be available to listen on the ATLAS website, and on Radio Skye’s listen again feature, thereafter.

We are also hosting two free events on 31 May and 1 June, hosted and programmed by group members Ciorstaidh Chaimbeul and Sebastian Taylor. Titled Spikk /​Bruidhinn /​Siarad, these events explore Ciorstaidh and Sebastian’s interests in Gaelic as a living, evolving force, and how music preserves dialects and languages of the land. The two-day programme includes a sound workshop on the Saturday, exploring Gaelic, Welsh, and Scots languages and dialects, and creative ways of using written and oral archives. On Sunday the 1st of June, we move to An Crùbh for music and spoken word performance, tea and cake. Find out more and book here

The launch is also timed to coincide with Community Land Scotland’s 2025 conference at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig the same weekend, exploring the theme Roots to Resilience.

The School of Plural Futures 2023 – 2025 has been supported by The Isle of Skye Renewable Energy Cooperative Community Fund, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Creative Scotland.

PODCAST 1: Tourism - A Blessing or a Curse?

Content warning. 1 instance of swearing (s***).

Tourism - A Blessing or a Curse? Devised by Olivia Loughlin and Hannah Myers, is a critical look at how over-tourism and deep-rooted housing inequality is hollowing out Highland communities, leaving residents struggling to keep a hold of their homes, culture and sense of belonging. It touches on topics including communal responsibility and the reliance on one type of economic thinking, with Skye-born writer, actor, director and journalist Daniel Cullen.

PODCAST 2: How does crofting shape community identity and justice?

Podcast 2: How does crofting shape community identity and justice?by Ciorstaidh Chaimbeul. In this conversation Ciorstaidh weaves together different voices to examine the history and evolution of crofting in Skye. This includes local crofters Calina and Donald MacDonald from Eynort, who speak about their own family’s experiences, the roles of women within this tradition and the shifting laws towards communal ownership. Archivist Catherine MacPhee and historian Grace Wright provide the historical context for crofting citing the land struggles and resistance of crofters in the 19th Century, and Cheryl McIntyre speaks on a new generation of crofters providing an insight into how people are working with the tradition and laws today.

PODCAST 3: How has the island changed over time?

Podcast 3: How has the island changed over time? by Caitlin and Ciara Turnbull, who live in Balmacara. Both artists, they run the art shop and gallery Create in Kyle of Lochalsh, and work at An Crùbh in Sleat. Together they approached three people from Sleat who’s stories and experiences of community work they admire, including artist and writer Suisaid McNeil who discusses her experience of Gaelic, community spaces, volunteering and a changing community, Donnie Petrol, who talks through the historical significance of crofting and the impact of tourism in Skye, and Gaelic singer Kirsteen Graham who highlights the importance of Gaelic education in the area, reflecting on her own upbringing and efforts to teach Gaelic song.

PODCAST CREDITS
Dàmhair 2024 — Dàmhair 2025

Along with artist Emmie McLuskey, contributors across Skye and Lochalsh are building this alternative school to speak about the reality and potential of life in Skye and Lochalsh.

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