Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college of Scotland, June 23-27

Having arrived at Sabhal Mor Ostaig by bus on Tuesday 23 June 2009, I set about orienting myself to the location. I have to say that this part of the trip was the culmination of at least 3 years of dreaming.

Sabhal Mor Ostaig, which means the Red Barn of Ostaig, was established in 1973 by Ian Noble, a Glaswegian philanthropist, who bought the land surrounding the college from the then Laird of Clan Macdonald. The story goes that, when the manager was showing Noble around the grounds, he had pointed to some dilapidated stone farm buildings and said, "And that is where the university will be." Of course, every one thought he was barmy but nevertheless, it was not long after that the college was established in the very buildings Noble had indicated. The aim was the economic development of the region, which was suffering from a lack of employment and population decline associated with urban draft. Sabhal Mor has developed into an internationally recognised National Centre for the Gaelic language and culture, and plays a leading role in the promotion of the Gaelic arts.

The conference I attended at Sabhal Mor was entitled A'Cleachdhadh na Gaidhlig: slatan-tomhais ann an dion canain sa choimhearsnachd - Using Gaelic: criteria in language maintenance in the community which ran from 23 to 26 June 2009. Presenters were asked to provide papers relating to the following:

1. Language in the home, the family and the community;


2. Language in the workplace, public organisations and clubs; or
   
3. Language in education in the primary to tertiary and life-long learning sectors.

My paper was entitled 'Te reo i te kāinga - revitalising language in the home: national language strategies in Aotearoa New Zealand and Alba Scotland". The focus of my paper was the national language plans for Māori and Gaelic and how much emphasis was being put on reviving the language in the home. My key finding was that, although the national plan for Gaelic is a far more comprehensive strategy overall, its focus on Gaelic in the home revolves around promoting language status, rather than the other areas of language planning, namely, language usage, language acquisition and language corpus.

The conference itself was amazing; it allowed me to have a primary experience of the situatuion surrounding Gaelic language revitalisation in Alba Scotland. It also enabled me to build and further develop my research connections in that place. The biggest challenge of the conference was that over half of the conference papers were presented in Gaelic as opposed to English. As a non-Gaelic speaker, this was a real challenge. However, I was happy to stand back and listen as this is part of language revival in practice and I commend them for it.

I presented my conference paper on Saturday 25 June to a full house of about 30 people; it was probably the best attendance of the week, from what I saw. I think that being from Aotearoa was a huge draw card in that respect, as we have a reputation for being one of the leaders in Indigenous language revival. The paper was well received and has enabled me further build my research networks.

Big thanks go out to the people who supported my attendance at the Using Gaelic conference: University of Otago's Division of Humanities; Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga's Knowledge Exchange; and Otago Polytechnic. Ngā mihi nunui ki a koutou! The conference and travel to Scotland have been invaluable for my PhD research; this experience has enabled me to move the thesis forward through the knowledge I have gained and the connections I have made whilst attending the conference.

Getting to Skye

I left Inverness to travel to Skye on the morning of Tuesday 23 June. The first leg of the trip was by train to Kyle of Lochalsh with the second leg by bus, first from Kyle to Broadford, and then from Broadford to Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college of Scotland, which is in Sleat.

I met a rather interesting character on the train called Tony who had been in to Inverness ("the big smoke") to buy a rather enormous LCD TV with a 58" screen. We got to talking on the trip and I was introduced to the wonders of Irn Bru (the local energy drink) and vodka. Tony lived in Kyle and ran a fishing company. He also told me about his late wife's family, as her father was the principal of a Gaelic-medium school on Skye. It made for a very interesting trip.

Then I arrived in Kyle of Lochalsh. I had a 2-hour wait til the bus to Broadford left so I had a wee wander around. For a small place, Kyle was quite touristy, mainly because it's a kind of 'gateway to the Western Isles' because this is where the bridge goes across from the Scottish mainland to Skye.

The first bus took me to Broadford. Finally, I was on the Isle of Skye! All those memories of my maternal grandmother who came out from Scotland in 1919 singing me songs and telling stories about Bonnie Prince Charlie came back to me in a rush!

One thing they don't tell you about the north of Scotland is how hot it is! Unlike NZ where the further south you go the colder it gets, up there for some reason it just gets warmer. The other thing is the length of the days - there is really only 2 or 3 hours of actual nighttime. There is this eerie twilight that just goes on for hours and hours.

So I spent some time sitting by the side of the road in a bus shelter feeling hot and bothered, hoping I was in the right place at the right time and anxious to make it to my final destination. Finally the bus came and picked me up. I was on my way to Sabhal Mor! I spent the whole 15 minute trip anxiously peering out the window in case I missed my stop and kicking myself for not spending the 30 minutes I had been waiting at Broadford walking to Sabhal Mor! I would have probably beaten the bus there.

Finally I had made it to Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college of Scotland. I walked down the driveway to what must be the most beautiful setting of any tertiary institution in the world for the next part of my adventure.

Inverness 21-23 June '09

I travelled to Inverness from Edinburgh by train on Sunday 21 June. The scenery was amazing and I would recommend travelling by train for the reason. When I arrived in Inverness, I grabbed a cab to the B+B I was staying at. The driver was a lovely chap who had visited NZ a few times so we had quite a chat on the way. I stayed at the Highlander B+B in Ardconnel Street, which was very close to the main streets and the train station.

The next day, I had arranged to meet with DJ MacIntyre, Director of Cli. Cli is a charitable organisation that represents the interests of adult Gaelic learners, and provides them with representation and a voice on issues relating to the Gaelic language. I spent two very valuable hours talking with DJ about Cli and its activities in relation to Gaelic language revitalisation. The two main activities that we focused on in our conversation were Ulpan, the new way of teaching Gaelic, and Cothram, Cli's monthly magazine.

Ulpan is based on a teaching system developed for the teaching of Hebrew, and that was later adopted in Wales (Wulpan). It is structured in 214 lessons of 90 minutes each. The idea is that learners can access the lessons at their own pace and in their own time.

Cothram, Cli's monthly magazine, is a bilingual publication that contains Gaelic language interest stories. The word 'cothram' means opportunity. It includes articles about other language communities, interviews with people involved in Gaelic language revival, and also specialist vocabulary sections with information about specific subjects such as curling, dog commands and bagpipes.

I want to thank DJ for the time he gave to me and also to commend him for the important work that he and Cli are doing for the Gaelic language and its adult learners.

I spent most of the rest of my time in Inverness trying to get internet access, and without much success. There was no access in the B+B I was staying at and I did manage to get limited access for 30 minutes at the public library. However, it was very difficult to find. In the end I did find a place with access, but when I went back (twice) with my laptop, it was closed. So that was a little disappointing. However, Inverness is a beautiful town and is definitely worth a visit. It is close by to Culloden, the site of the routing of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite supporters, and Loch Ness, the home of the legendary Nessie.

Inverness 21-23 June '09

Edinburgh 19-21 June '09

19/06/09 - I arrived in Edinburgh today by plane and got through customs without a hitch. I caught a cab to the Caledonian Backpackers, where I am staying and got myself settled in. Then I jumped a bus, in an attempt to have a look around and potentially find my way to the University of Edinburgh Department of Scottish and Celtic Studies. However, I missed my stop and ended up traveling to the end of the line and back! It was good though as I had a look around and figured out where I need to go tomorrow.

20/06/09 - When I woke up this morning, I felt rotten. I had a really runny nose and decided that I needed to get some medicine to get me through the day. I did a bit of googling on Google Maps and found a local chemist and supermarket to do some shopping for a few bits and pieces. Then I came back and looked up on Google Maps the way to George Square where the University's Scottish and Celtic Studies department is. I then left the hostel at (what I thought was) 10am, to meet Wilson McLeod at 10.30. I managed to get there in good time without getting lost, and let myself into the building. It ended up that I had set the time on my mobile wrong when I arrived yesterday and it was actually 11.30am not 10.30 so unwittingly I was an hour late!

When I finally found Wilson's office, the door was open and there was no one there, so I went in and sat down. A minute later, Wilson walked in the door and just about had a heart attack, as he didn't expect to see someone sitting in his office. Ended up he had heard me come in downstairs and taken a different route down to greet me. We had a quick chat, mostly with me talking about the situation around Maori language revival in New Zealand. It hadn't been long and Chrisma Bould came in to take me away for lunch.

Before I left, Wilson gave me some literature from Alasdair MacCaluim from the Scottish Parliament. Unfortunately, I was unable to meet Alasdair yesterday due to the changes in my flights. This included a book written by Alasdair called Reversing language shift: The social identity and role of Scottish Gaelic learners and a information booklet on Gaelic in the Scottish Parliament.

Chrisma and I walked to the National Museum of Scotland and had some lunch before she took me around the Celtic and Gaelic collections. It was amazing! It really showed me how little I know about the deep, rich and long history of this place. There have been so many influences on the Scottish people, and their language, with the English being only a recent arrival, following those of the Romans and the Vikings, amongst others. We also stopped in at church called Greyfriar's Kirk that holds a Gaelic service each Sunday and picked up some Gaelic religious literature.

Getting to Scotland

This post outline my trip to Scotland from Dunedin, New Zealand and is taken from handwritten notes that I made en route.

17/06/09 - Oakwood Manor, Auckland

I left Dunedin today but ran into a little problems at the airport. Yesterday, it snowed down to sea level in Dunedin, causing huge disruption including the closure of Otago Polytechnic where I work. When I got to the airport at Momona, flights were delayed due to ice on the runway. As a result myore flight left an hour late, and when I reached Auckland, I had missed my connection to Singapby 5 minutes! I am spending the night in a motel near the airport and will catch another flight to Singapore and then on to Frankfurt and Edinburgh tomorrow.

18/06/09 - Chanti Airport, Singapore

Today has been very eventful. I left the motel in Auckland this morning at 9.15 by shuttle and went straight to Auckland International Airport. At 10.05, I went to check in at Singapore Airlines and found that there were some problems. For some reason, their computer system wouldn't issue me my boarding pass due to missing my connection the day before. It took until 11.30am to get my boarding pass. Considering my flight was supposed to board at 11.25, it was quite stressful!

I arrived at Chanti Airport in Singapore at 6.30pm local time (10.30pm NZ time) and went straight to Lufthansa - no problems there and now I have until 10.25pm til I need to board my flight to Frankfurt.

19/06/09 - Frankfurt Airport, Germany

6am - Here I am in Frankfurt. It is about 6am local time (4pm NZ time) and I am just starting to think about finding a phone and calling Conway and the girls. The flight went well but to be honest, the food was horrible! I hardly ate a thing. After Chanti Airport and Singapore Airlines, the German service is a bit of a shocking contrast! Also, it has been really hard to find my way around Frankfurt Airport. Also, there were lots of kids on the Frankfurt flight - I really miss my girls!

7.30am - I haven't had much fun here. Passport control was a very unpleasant experience. I was searched by a woman as I came through, including having her hands put up my top, and a thorough investigation of my tiki. I then had to take my shoes off to be xrayed.

Flight LH4940 to Edinburgh - I am finally on my way to Edinburgh! I had a long, slow wait in Frankfurt Airport, from 5.30 til 11.40am, although it felt much longer! It is quite daunting to think that when I get to Edinburgh, I have so much to do. I am supposed to be meeting some people there this afternoon, but still have to get through the airport and then to the backpackers and get settled.