Highland Village Strengthens Partnerships with Scottish Institutions

N.S. MUSEUM--Highland Village Strengthens Partnerships with Scottish Institutions

Highland Village Museum is forging stronger links with Scotland's gaelic community. A recent trip resulted in the development of new partnerships, with a focus on improving interpretation of the language.

Museum staff embarked on the trip to find out how it can encourage and develop skills in the language and generate widespread interest in gaelic ways when only a small group of tradition-bearers exists today in Nova Scotia.

"As part of our development plan for Highland Village, we needed to forge strong links with Scotland's gaelic community, and the best way to do that was to go there and make personal contacts," said Rodney Chaisson, director.

Mr. Chaisson credits Tourism and Culture Minister Rodney MacDonald for inspiring the Highland Village delegates to visit Scotland to research gaelic language and culture.

"Mr. MacDonald had already cleared the way for us by making contact with gaelic agencies in Scotland during his trip earlier this year," he said. Mr. MacDonald visited Scotland in spring 2001 to begin to develop stronger cultural, heritage and tourism ties.

Financed by Highland Village, the trip was the latest in a series of initiatives to support development of the gaelic culture and language. The movement has been led by the Department of Tourism and Culture and the province over the past year-and-a-half. One of the initiatives was the inclusion of Highland Village as part of the Nova Scotia Museum. A gaelic curriculum for schools has also been developed.

"Gaelic Nova Scotia and gaelic Scotland have two centuries of shared history, culture and tradition. And they have a mutual interest in preserving and promoting the language," said Jim Watson, the Highland Village Museum's gaelic coordinator. "The Scottish Gaels were one of the many cultural groups that settled Nova Scotia, so the vitality of their language and culture here is important."

In addition to the historical and social value of preserving the language and heritage, he said, Nova Scotians and visitors have a keen interest in experiencing it.

While in Scotland, Mr. Chaisson and Mr. Watson discussed mutual goals and joint projects with representatives of the Highland Folk Museum in Kinguissie and Newtonmore. The sites exchanged information on programs to improve training in language skills for staff and discussed how best to integrate the language and culture using living history.

The journey also took the delegates to Highland Council Culture and Leisure Services Division in Kinguissie, and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye.

As well as meeting with people from gaelic institutions in Scotland, the Highland Village delegates were interviewed on BBC Gaelic Radio, conducted a Cape Breton gaelic song workshop at Colaside Bheinn na Faoghla (Lews Castle College, Benbecula Campus), visited the Museum of Scotland, Gaelic Books Council, School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the outer Hebridean Islands of Barra, North and South Uist and Benbecula, and made contacts with a number of other resource people throughout Scotland.

A full report on the trip (in pdf format) is available from the Highland Village Web site at highlandvillage.museum.gov.ns.ca

Highland Village Museum/An Clachan Gàidhealach, Iona, Cape Breton, is part of the Nova Scotia Museum. It works to preserve and celebrate gaelic language, culture and traditions.