Mapping Intangible Cultural Heritage Assets and Collections in Scotland
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Mapping Intangible Cultural Heritage Assets and Collections in Scotland Local Voices CIC July 2021 Commissioned by Museums Galleries Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, and Creative Scotland CONTENTS Executive Summary v 1 Introduction 01 1.1 Definitions and abbreviations 01 1.2 Sections and purpose 02 1.3 Methodology 04 1.3.1 Comparative Research 05 1.3.2 ICH publications and academic research 05 1.3.3 Research methods not pursued 05 2 The Context of ICH in Scotland 06 2.1 Scottish Government 06 2.2 UK Government 08 2.3 Previous scoping reports on ICH 08 2.4 The research base for ICH in Scotland 11 2.5 ICH and archives: digitisation and access 11 2.6 The role of academic institutions: folklore and ethnology 13 2.7 Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh 13 2.7.1 Terminology: ethnology or ICH? 13 2.7.2 Reflections on previous ICH in Scotland research 14 2.7.3 ICH, teacher training and the education sector 15 2.7.4 The European Ethnological Research Centre 15 2.8 Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen 16 2.8.1 The Elphinstone and the official ICH process in Scotland 17 2.8.2 Reflections on previous ICH in Scotland research 17 2.8.3 Terminology 18 2.8.4 Other ICH resources and the role of ethnologists 18 2.8.5 Reflections on the ICHC and international examples 18 2.9 Heriot-Watt Intercultural Research Centre 19 2.9.1 The Cross Party Group on Culture: ICH in Scotland 20 2.9.2 HoW ICH functions in Scotland 21 2.9.3 Reflections on previous ICH in Scotland research 21 2.9.4 Moving ICH forWard in Scotland 21 2.10 Additional academic intervieWs – international perspectives 22 2.10.1 Robert Baron 22 2.10.2 Prof. Valdimar Tr. Hafstein 23 2.11 Beyond academia – citizen fieldWork 24 3 International comparisons 25 3.1 NeWfoundland and Labrador 25 3.1.1 The background to ICH development in NL 25 3.1.2 ICH strategy development and working with communities 26 3.1.3 ICH elseWhere in Canada 26 3.1.4 The implications of non-ratification 27 3.1.5 ICH collecting and safeguarding in NL 27 3.1.6 Public information on ICH 28 3.1.7 The benefits of ICH for NL 28 3.2 Republic of Ireland 29 3.2.1 The NGO role 29 i 3.2.2 Traditional arts policy at the Arts Council of Ireland 30 4 Findings on a national basis by organisation 31 4.1 TRACS 31 4.1.1 Adjusting to budget changes and The People’s Parish 33 4.1.2 International best practice – the concept of public folklore 34 4.1.3 Expanding the remit 35 4.2 Museums Galleries Scotland 36 4.2.1 NetWorking and funding 37 4.2.2 Training and skills development 38 4.2.3 Visibility of ICH at MGS 38 4.2.4 Visibility of ICH at other museum organisations 39 4.2.5 The ichscotland.org Website 39 4.3 Creative Scotland 41 4.3.1 Creative Scotland and “heritage” 41 4.3.2 Specialist knowledge for traditional arts and ICH 41 4.3.3 ICH activity at Creative Scotland 43 4.3.4 ICH collecting 43 4.3.5 Traditional or heritage crafts at Creative Scotland 44 4.3.6 Clarifying the position for ICH and traditional arts 45 4.4 Historic Environment Scotland 46 4.4.1 ICH policy 46 4.4.2 ICH across the organisation and its partners 47 4.4.3 Recording ICH 47 4.4.4 Shared inventories and Heritage Hub Scotland 48 4.4.5 Traditional skills education and training 49 4.4.6 Connecting With communities 51 4.4.7 Communications output 52 5 Other national and regional organisations 52 5.1 Folklore Museums NetWork 52 5.1.1 The motivation behind the FMN 53 5.1.2 Listing folklore and ICH in museums and future plans 54 5.2 Fèisean nan Gàidheal 55 5.3 High Life Highland / Am Baile 56 5.3.1 The Highland Folk Museum: traditional skills and shinty 57 5.4 National Library of Scotland 57 5.4.1 Scotland’s Sounds NetWork and the Moving Image Archive 57 5.4.2 Collecting policy 58 5.4.3 Other collections and community activities 59 5.4.4 NLS as a repository for ICH 60 5.5 National Lottery Heritage Fund in Scotland 60 5.6 National Museums of Scotland 61 5.6.1 The Scottish Life Archive 61 5.6.2 Collecting policy and strategy 62 5.6.3 Traditional crafts, community heritage, and publishing 62 5.6.4 Scottish Cultural Heritage Consortium 63 5.7 Shetland Museums and Archives / Shetland Amenity Trust 63 5.7.1 ICH and textiles 63 5.7.2 Collecting ICH 64 ii 5.7.3 Disseminating and discussing ICH locally 65 5.7.4 Funding and small grants 66 5.7.5 Awareness of national ICH initiatives 66 5.8 Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches 66 5.9 Traditional Music and Song Association 68 5.9.1 Collecting 69 5.9.2 Life members as key tradition bearers 69 5.10 The Western Isles 70 5.10.1 Comainn Eachdraidh 70 5.10.2 Pròiseact an Fhìor-Àite and the BetWeen Islands project 70 5.10.3 The ICH Symposium and Working With ICH Partnership organisations 71 6 Inclusive ICH 71 6.1 LGBTQ+ Heritage: Queer Heritage and Collections NetWork 71 6.1.1 National Galleries of Scotland 72 6.1.2 OurStory Scotland 72 6.1.3 Scottish Civic Trust 73 6.2 Migrant Communities 73 6.2.1 Scotland China Association 73 6.2.2 Scottish Polish Cultural Association 74 6.2.3 BEMIS 74 6.2.4 Paisley Syrians 75 6.3 Gypsy/Travellers and other mobile communities 76 6.3.1 Endangered languages 76 6.3.2 Cultural trauma, breakdoWn of transmission, and exclusion 77 6.3.3 Heritage in place 77 6.3.4 Collecting Traveller ICH 77 6.3.5 Current research on Traveller culture 78 6.3.6 Traveller advocacy organisations and events 78 7 Gaps in ICH collecting in Scotland 79 7.1 Oral traditions and expressions, languages as a vehicle for ICH 79 7.2 Performing arts 80 7.3 Social practices, rituals, and festive events 81 7.4 KnoWledge and practices concerning nature and the universe 82 7.4.1 Identifying the sub-domains 82 7.4.2 Crofting 83 7.4.3 Horticultural and landscape heritage, and plant lore 83 7.4.4 The national natural heritage organisations 84 7.4.5 Ecomuseums 85 7.5 Traditional craftsmanship 86 7.5.1 Defining traditional crafts and skills 86 7.5.2 Traditional crafts and skills among the Partners 86 7.5.3 The Heritage Crafts Association and the Red List 87 7.5.4 Further interviews and findings 88 7.6 Additional gaps in ICH collecting 89 8 Recommended next steps for recording and preserving ICH in Scotland 90 Acknowledgements 99 iii Appendices Appendix 1: ICH definition from project brief 102 Appendix 2: Heritage SaskatcheWan brochure 104 Appendix 3: The ICH Convention and inventory in Ireland 106 Appendix 4: The national natural heritage organisations and ICH 108 Appendix 5: The background to heritage or traditional crafts support in Scotland 110 Bibliography 115 iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The future is bright for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Scotland. Since the late 2000s, Scotland has shown leadership and initiative on ICH inventory work and has influenced the development of collecting approaches in other countries – all despite not being a signatory to the UNESCO ICH Convention. This report considers the ICH activities of the four commissioning organisations (“the Partnership”), but also recognises that there is a much wider field of opportunity for ICH engagement, building on Scotland’s existing expertise in celebrating its traditional cultures. ICH is a new name, but not a new landscape. For over 70 years, Scotland’s ICH has been collected and safeguarded by generations of fieldworkers, folklorists, community scholars and heritage enthusiasts, amongst others, under other names such as folklore and ethnology. This report highlights the strong research base and expertise for ICH embodied in the country’s university folklore departments, with which, in our view, the previous ICH process failed to adequately engage. Earlier ICH scoping reports worked on the presumption that folklore archives were only supplementary or historic, and that the lack of cataloguing, transcription and access would limit their usefulness. Far from being “past”, much material was actually collected in the late twentieth century, capturing many traditions still within living memory. These archives can now act as pathfinders for ICH to bridge gaps in collecting across the five domains identified by UNESCO. Major digitisation projects have radically changed access to this material, shifting the emphasis from academia to the public domain. Such collections should be investigated as a priority, in collaboration with local communities, as the basis of a cultural map of ICH practices in Scotland. We recognise that the Partnership is relatively new. While significant collaborations on ICH have taken place between the organisations in the past, these have been sporadic and time-limited. Based on our research, we have concluded that: • The Partnership does not yet have a common understanding of what collecting and safeguarding ICH means. • No ICH collecting policies exist across the Partnership either collectively or individually. • There are no dedicated staff for ICH across the Partnership. • Views on the benefits of a shared ICH inventory differ.