opinion...

There’s no place like home

hat’s positive If you extend this vision of the Scottish external Homecoming aims to about connection to some of these other diasporas, WHomecoming? you begin to see the huge impact the Scots celebrate ’s That it is happening at all. have had on education, politics, philosophy It couldn’t have occurred and medicine across the world. I’m not contribution to the world. 30 years ago. It reflects a suggesting Homecoming should be marketed greater awareness of the throughout the globe, but it at least should But is it a reflection of ’s outreach over the centuries incorporate an awareness of that dimension. and a growing historical sophistication and Most of those who will be coming from abroad our lives now, a chance understanding. for Homecoming will be North Americans. This to champion heritage – There are aspects of Homecoming that would highlights one of the biggest tensions in the gain anyone’s unqualified approval. The grass- project: the clash between indigenous Scottish or simply a marketing roots dimension and the music programme identity in 2009 and Scottish –American identity, are extremely interesting. There are also a an identity that has been forged through the exercise? bulletin series of academic events, including the invention of tradition, built around and Scottish Diaspora debate in the Parliament, Highlandism. In order to facilitate the process interviewed Professors that will be important and engaging. of seducing the American audience, the organisers of Homecoming have had to adopt But the central problem is that Homecoming those markers of Scottishness, which many Tom Devine and David has only made a connection with one part of Scots of today would think of as kitsch. Scotland’s historic diaspora: North America. McCrone (right) to hear This American audience is mainly indifferent to We’ve been sending people abroad for seven modern Scotland. Their interest is in a historic centuries. Only in the last 10 years has there what they think the Scotland: a vision of a romantic past. As part been in-migration to Scotland. The kind of of Homecoming there will be a 7,000-person Homecoming event I’m envisaging would events say about our march, the Gathering of the , led by the allow the Scottish people to be instructed that ‘ chiefs’. Given that the great removals this is one of the very few diasporic nations in national identity in 2009. from the Highlands in the 18th and 19th the world. But there is no meaningful centuries were orchestrated by their ancestors campaign as part of Homecoming to appeal – as commercial landlords – most Scots would to Ulster, , Europe or South Africa. find this idea deeply ironic.

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he Homecoming It’s also important to say that there’s nothing we interest them in coming to a country that celebrations tell us wrong with marketing Scotland. We have a has some affinity with them? And the ‘auld Tthat there are many long and interesting history; it’s amazingly enemy’, England, is the country most like ours, different ways of being a diverse. We have a tourist industry going back and the one we’ve lived with since the island Scot: being born here, at least to the days of . existed. We’ve just completed some survey having parents or grand- work in England. Guess who they see as the We’ve been sending people around the world parents born here, or people they have most in common with? The for a long time, such that many people living simply living here. Indeed, if you want to be a Scots. England is our biggest neighbour and abroad have Scottish ancestors. We can get Scot, you have a number of ‘identity markers’ our biggest market. carried away celebrating the ‘blood line’ – and at your disposal. if we do we then ignore lots of other ways of Concerns have also been expressed about the being Scottish. Homecoming is good if it way Homecoming relates to Scottish Research on national identity that I have encourages people to come here. It’s not nationalism. There is, in my mind, very little link conducted with my colleague Frank Bechhofer good if it implies that you can only be Scottish between a lack of understanding in Scotland indicates that people make their claims to be if your granny is a MacTavish, to coin a of our own history and a rise in the popularity Scottish on all sorts of grounds, and most of phrase. After all, many Scots went abroad over of political nationalism. I know that some say these are accepted, including being born here the centuries, and made contributions to their that we have neglected our history, but there’s – not something we can do anything about! new home, just as many people have settled also the view that we became obsessed by it. There is no one way of being Scottish, any in Scotland and make a huge contribution Nationalism has developed for ‘political’ more than there is a single Scottish culture. here. They’re just as Scottish as people who reasons. Over the last 30 years, we’ve needed We are a mongrel nation; indeed, that itself is left. I was born and brought up in Scotland, more self-government, reflected in our growing a characteristic way of being Scottish. and have been here all my life. Those who sense of being first Scottish, but also British. Homecoming does not necessarily define have chosen to live here are just as Scottish Ours is not an ‘ethnic’ nationalism in which Scottishness simply as a ‘cultural export’ in the as I am. some people don’t have the correct culture or way that some of its critics have implied. skin colour, and so are not ‘one of us’. It’s It’s been claimed the Homecoming celebrations Instead, it recognises the diverse ways of ‘civic’, in that you can be a Scot by aspiration, have too strong a focus on appealing to a being Scottish. If we start saying that you are a by residence, and, of course, voting for our North American audience. If that’s the case, it Scot only by ancestry or birth, you infer that . There has been a growing wouldn’t make very good business sense. We some people are excluded. Anyway, none of ‘cultural’ sense of being Scottish – music, have many people around the world who feel us can do a thing about where our parents literature, the arts – but people’s sense of some attachment to Scotland. Our oldest decided we would be born, or what our being Scottish is not directly linked to their allies, after all, are the French. Why shouldn’t ancestors got up to. political or constitutional preferences.

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Continued from page 14 the 1960s and 1970s the Scot preferred the Continued from page 15 role of victim. It was in this period that John We’ve become more Prebble’s books were the most popular form There is also an accusation that Homecoming of historical literature in Scotland – Culloden, celebrates ‘Scottishness’ by employing sophisticated in our the , the Darien Disaster – artificial symbols and paraphernalia. But lots of national identity over all concentrating on Scottish disasters, the our favourite cultural institutions – , haggis, chip on the shoulder and victimhood. But even tartan, even golf – we borrowed from other the last 30 years ... the most superficial understanding of our role people and made our own. Borrowing is fine, in Empire would conclude that we were the as long as we don’t think we have sole rights The modern Scot is colonisers, not the colonised! over things, or more dangerously, that only certain kinds of people have the right to use now pretty sniffy about How could we inform Scots about the realities, them. Back in the 1990s I wrote a book about and help forge a more balanced view of our traditional Highlandism Scottish heritage. It convinced me that diasporic role? The teaching of Scottish history Scottish was a matter of doing, rather than We have become more sophisticated and in our schools needs to better capture the being; in other words, most folk don’t get confident in our national identity over the last tension between our national history and the terribly precious about heritage. I remember 20 or 30 years. The White Heather Club, Andy wider European and world history. talking to an old man who had set up the Stewart and Moira Anderson sit uncomfortably Ironically this comes back to Homecoming, Tartan Society. “Wear what you like,” he said. with the modern Scot. But what’s being because the Scottish Diaspora is a way of “The great thing about tartan is that it’s very marketed by Homecoming now is very much linking Scotland to the rest of the globe. Our flexible; it can be re-invented.” an incarnation of that. The modern Scot is worldwide impact could be used as a route pretty sniffy about this traditional Highlandism Homecoming represents an opportunity to from the national story into the international in a way that was not the case in the 1950s. raise awareness of Scots’ cultural history and story. One of my recent books, Scotland’s impact on the world. We have a huge While I understand that Homecoming should Empire: 1600 – 1815 (2003) was about the advantage that globally people know of us and be celebratory, there is also danger of it global reach of the Scots during the early two our culture. ‘The brand’ works. We shouldn’t becoming triumphalist. We’ve long suffered centuries of imperialism. But in order to write it exaggerate it any more than we should deplore from what I call the School of I had to read widely in the historiography of it. It’s out there whether we like it or not. At Scottish History, which tends to be based on a the USA, Canada, Australasia and India during times, though, I think we suffer from the ‘dearie form of ethnic conceit – here’s tae us, wha’s that period, before I could even start to locate me’ factor: the belief that somehow we’re not like us? There’s a risk of that being the Scottish factor in the story. doing it right, or no good will come of it, or perpetuated by Homecoming. It would be impossible to write a general study we’ll pay for it in the long run. Of course, we A significant gesture would be to remember of modern Scotland today without stressing the should do our best, and not inadvertently some of the darker elements of Scottish interconnection with Empire and diaspora. The damage our culture. But cultures are amazingly history by extending an invitation to effect of Empire was so profound in the making robust. They’ll be here long after we’re gone. Homecoming to Caribbean populations, many of this country; every part of Scottish life was A celebration of Scotland’s heritage, culture of whom bear Scottish names. The role of penetrated by it. That tells us that it’s false to and national identity can truly engage Scots Scots in the slave plantations in the Caribbean end our national story where the land ends.” about their own history if it’s undertaken with at the height of Empire needs to be aired and Professor Tom Devine is the Sir William Fraser good humour. We don’t take kindly to being discussed. But again, that’s missing. We don’t Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography, preached at, least of all by academics. Don’t need to carry out a public act of contrition for Director of the Scottish Centre of Diaspora turn it into a battleground about what is the what our ancestors did but we could Studies and Head of the School of History, right and wrong way to do it. Looking back demonstrate that a mature nation is prepared Classics and Archaeology. The Scottish Centre over the last 50 years, I’m cheered with how to look at its past, warts and all. for Diaspora Studies was established in Spring far we’ve come in terms of our culture and Indeed, one of the bizarre aspects of Scotland 2008 to advance historical enquiry into the national identity. We are a people of many since the mid-20th century has been the subject. For more information visit opinions, a lot of them contrary and self- amnesia about Empire until recent years. In www.shc.ed.ac.uk/centres/scdt/about.htm contradictory. That’s the Scottish way. If it’s your way, then you’re one of us.”

David McCrone is Professor of Sociology, and co-director of the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Governance, which he co-founded About Homecoming in 1997. Along with Frank Bechhofer, he has been working on issues of national identity in is a project that aims Scotland and England since the early 1990s, to celebrate Scotland’s contributions to the world. most notably in the context of constitutional Events throughout the year will mark the 250th change. anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, honour famous Scots, innovations and achievements, and explore Interviews by Chris Small. our culture and heritage overall. Homecoming is an initiative of the managed by Illustrations by Lucy McCririck. Lucy is a Event Scotland in partnership with Visit Scotland. The University will be hosting a final-year student at Edinburgh College of Art special event on St Andrew’s Day (30 November) to mark the year of Homecoming. (www.illustrating-lucy.com). For more information, visit www.homecomingscotland.com If you would like to respond to this article, email [email protected]

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