History / New projects aim to celebrate and record North Yell’s cultural heritage
TWO new cultural heritage projects are set to get underway in North Yell, including one to “save wir midder tongue”.
North Yell Development Council (NYDC) has partnered with the newly established SCIO North Yell Culture and Heritage Group on the projects.
The first, Savin wir midder tongue, is part funded by Museums and Galleries Scotland, with match funding coming from NYDC.
The focus of this project is to sustain the oral traditions, expressions and language of the community of North Yell.
The project will include both the local community and its diaspora – people who have spread or been dispersed from their homeland.
Learning for Sustainability Scotland, Scotland’s UN University-recognised regional centre of expertise on education for sustainable development, is also a project partner.
The second project, Listening to North Sea Communities, is funded through the COAST-R Network.
The focus here is to capture the sounds of the environment of North Yell.
Project partners for this are the University of Aberdeen and the community of Greyhope Bay.
Both projects will focus on celebrating and recording the “vibrant intangible cultural heritage” of North Yell through language and dialect, living traditions, knowledge, oral traditions, music and the environment and landscape.
NYDC director Michael Henderson said: “It’s been a priority of ours to keep the culture and traditions of North Yell alive and we are excited to be working with this now.”
Over the course of the projects the groups plan to record a number of round table conversations on topics such as fishing and boat building, makkin, Up Helly Aa, crofting and other aspects of life in North Yell that will become podcasts.
“Capturing these voices is essential,” said the culture and heritage group chair Barry Nisbet.
“Our community members hold a treasure of stories, heritage and history and we’re very excited to be able to share and record as much as possible.”
Sonic postcards – a snapshot of recorded sound to illustrate an aspect of life or the environment in North Yell – will be created and traded with Greyhope Bay in Aberdeen.
The projects kick off on 27 March at 7pm with the Sounds of North Yell club room night at the Cullivoe Hall, which will give folk a chance to have a “dram, some sangs, a scar o tottie soup and a fine yarn”.
The project will culminate in September with an event to celebrate the work of the projects and will encourage attendees online from the diaspora of North Yell all over the world.
This will be held at the Sellafirth Community Hub, which is currently being refurbished and will house a digital heritage unit.
More information about the heritage projects can be found online.
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