A Grassroots Heritage event came to Orkney on Saturday 13 September hosted by the Scottish Community Heritage Alliance. Attendees in person, and online, heard from three speakers, two from Orkney and one from Shetland, about heritage projects they had been involved with.

The Scottish Community Heritage Alliance provides support and opportunities for local heritage groups , in particular smaller ones.

The Orkney event was held in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall. Speakers were: Pat Christie, Shetland Heritage Association; Dan Lee, UHI Orkney Institute of Archaeology; and Karen Tweed, musician.

Each of the speakers brought to the discussion a different aspect of heritage through their experiences and involvement in a variety of projects.

Shetland Heritage Association (SHA) was formed in 2000 and has 56 members. In partnership with Shetland Amenity Trust, funded by Museum Galleries Scotland and the Forum Connections Fund, they launched an eighteen months long project. It involved travelling all over Shetland, and linking with Fair Isle, with training workshops, storytelling, and heritage tours. The project has been immensely important in identifying the fantastic heritage groups there are in Shetland, and the challenges they face.

Pat Christie in an honest and straightforward presentation said that they had found that often the volunteers who run the heritage groups feel undervalued. They had expressed to her that their views were often not taken seriously by those in positions of influence. The Shetland Heritage Association had come out of the 18 month long project with a stronger, more resilient, and clearer direction of what it can do in the islands. They are also learning from successful ideas from elsewhere, for instance, establishing a connection with young people through a version of Orkney’s Fereday project. (The Fereday Prize for a local history investigation is open to second year school pupils of both Stromness Academy and Kirkwall Grammar School).

The SHA are also taking part in the ‘Lost Souls Project’. This is a UK wide project which is researching the lives of those who were taken away from their homes and placed in asylums, most never to return, and eventually to be buried in pauper graves. Islanders with mental illness were removed to asylums on the Scottish mainland, both in Shetland and Orkney.

More than a quarter of a million bodies lie nameless in unmarked and largely forgotten graves around the UK, bodies belonging to people who died in Britain’s Mental Asylums. – hellorayo.co.uk

Pat said that for her the Community Conversations were really important because the volunteers knew that they were being listened to. It’s the volunteers who keep the heritage groups and sites going, so vital for Shetland’s tourism sector – ‘We’re very good at what we do’.

Karen Tweed spoke about the work she has done in a variety of community groups in encouraging people at all levels to play instruments. She has run many workshops in Orkney, including on the Tall Ships. She described heritage as being a ‘living legacy’, and that it was not merely ‘important’, but ‘imperative’ as an integral part of the community. She said that there was, however, not enough funding to support the work of volunteers, especially in the administrative side of running heritage groups.

Dan Lee of UHI Orkney Institute of Archaeology, has led many community archaeology projects throughout Orkney and beyond. He said that from the beginning the ethos has been about working together with the community. There is an element of volunteering in the projects he has led but this includes training of volunteers and working across disciplines.

After lunch there was a group discussion involving the attendees both in person and online. It was regrettable that the event wasn’t better attended because it was extremely worthwhile and everyone came away better informed.

Although the Orkney event was the last of the in person roadshows, there are online dates for Grassroots Gatherings which will be held via Zoom at 7-8pm on the following dates:

18th September – Volunteering
30th September – Fundraising
9th October – Social Media & Marketing
28th October – Signposting Resources
6th November – General Discussion

To book, email scottishcommunityheritage@gmail.com, stating the session(s) you would like to attend.

Click on this link to find out about the Scottish Community Heritage Alliance.

The Orkney event included stalls from three organisations in the islands.

And here’s a short video about one of the communities taking part in The Lost Souls Project

Fiona Grahame

---