I went to North Uist at the weekend with Claire Hewitt taking the school patchwork back to one of its original locations in Lochmaddy. The local heritage society had helped gather interested people to come to Taigh Chearsabhaigh, an arts and heritage centre, and see the quilt, hear some of what we already knew about it and to see the names. Powerful things those names, they recorded grannies and great aunts for a surprising number of the people in the room. Just about everyone was related to someone on the quilt, including children from Lochmaddy primary school. It was very moving to hear about the lives of those women and even to see photographs of some of them. We heard about a lost way of life too from Angus 'Moy' MacDonald, who had lived on Heisker until 1942, sixty years after Isabella Christie taught there and started making her quilt. Those islands are uninhabited now. The quilt holds many stories of loss and abandonment, but the people in that room also showed how it records continuity too. It was an inspiring day. We are hoping that the heritage society, and others, will help us gather memories and memorabilia together for an exhibition sometime with the quilt at its centre.
We camped at Balranald while we were on North Uist and I took the chance to explore the machair and take a closer look at the wildlife. The flowers were past their best but there were still plenty around for insects, including some wind-tattered butterflies. This bumblebee was a bit more robust and not quite so battered looking. It's a Great Yellow, Bombus distinguendus, a species like the corncrake that has found a refuge on the Outer Isles from the intensive agriculture in the rest of the country that has driven it extinct elsewhere. It's not just people who keep their roots in these islands, the wildlife does too.
No comments:
Post a Comment