Curatorial Report No. 97 GAELIC NOVA SCOTIA AN ECONOMIC, CULTURAL, AND SOCIAL IMPACT STUDY Michael Kennedy 1 Nova Scotia Museum Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada November 2002 Maps of Nova Scotia GAELIC NOVA SCOTIA AN ECONOMIC, CULTURAL, AND SOCIAL IMPACT STUDY Michael Kennedy Nova Scotia Museum Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada Nova Scotia Museum 1747 Summer Street Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3A6 © Crown copyright, Province of Nova Scotia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing from the Nova Scotia Museum, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Nova Scotia Museum at the above address. Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-88871-774-1 CONTENTS Introduction 1 Section One: The Marginalization of Gaelic Celtic Roots 10 Gaelic Settlement of Nova Scotia 16 Gaelic Nova Scotia 21 The Status of Gaelic in the 19th Century 27 The Thin Edge of The Wedge: Education in 19th-Century Nova Scotia 39 Gaelic Language and Status: The 20th Century 63 The Multicultural Era: New Initiatives, Old Problems 91 The Current Status of Gaelic in Nova Scotia 112 Section Two: Gaelic Culture in Nova Scotia The Social Environment 115 Cultural Expression 128 Gaelic and the Modern Media 222 Gaelic Organizations 230 Section Three: Culture and Tourism The Community Approach 236 The Institutional Approach 237 Cultural Promotion 244 Section Four: The Gaelic Economy Events 261 Lessons 271 Products 272 Recording 273 Touring 273 Section Five: Looking Ahead Strengths of Gaelic Nova Scotia 275 Weaknesses 280 Opportunities 285 Threats 290 Priorities 295 Bibliography Selected Bibliography 318 INTRODUCTION Scope and Method Scottish Gaels are one of Nova Scotia’s largest ethnic groups, and Gaelic culture contributes tens of millions of dollars per year to the provincial economy. Yet, there has never been a systematic policy developed to provide support for the culture in Nova Scotia, and surprisingly little accurate information about the province’s Gaelic heritage is widely known or available. This report represents a first attempt to address that need. The initial idea for this study came from David Newlands of the Heritage Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture, who brought together representatives from Cultural Affairs, the Department of Education, and the Gaelic community to discuss the prospect of developing a Gaelic cultural policy. At that time, it became apparent that an assessment of the state of Gaelic in the province was a necessary prerequisite to planning. Peter Guildford of Cultural Affairs assumed responsibility for the project, and the ad hoc committee drew up a research plan identifying four major areas of enquiry: (1) a description of the historical context of Gaelic language and culture in Nova Scotia; (2) an inventory of the current resources available for, and opportunities to participate in, Gaelic language and cultural activities; (3) an assessment of the economic contribution of Gaelic language and cultural activities to the province; and (4) an assessment of the potential of Gaelic cultural resources and activities as tourism product. The research proposal was put to public tender, and Dr. Michael Kennedy was awarded the contract as project coordinator. Given the tight time line and the relative paucity of previous research on the province’s Gaelic heritage, a large amount of ground had to be covered and a great deal of new information synthesized rather quickly. Research was conducted in the Nova Scotia Archives in Halifax, at the Beaton Institute, University College of Cape Breton, at St. Francis Xavier University, over the Internet, and in the field. Scores of documents were reviewed, including archival and government papers, census returns, academic studies, television documentaries and field recordings, print media, and studies in culture, tourism, and economic development. In addition, nearly 500 individuals and organizations were contacted for information. They seemed particularly heartened to hear that the government was planning a development plan for Gaelic, and their enthusiasm and co-operation played a critical role in the success of the project. The media was also helpful, providing good publicity for the research and publishing local contact numbers for the research assistants and the project coordinator. In order to ensure as thorough coverage as possible for the project, which ran for less than three months, from February into April, Dr. Kennedy selected research assistants to assist in the gathering and preparation of specific sets of data. For the enumeration of the various Gaelic events that take place each year, the province was divided into four major zones, and research assistants with local knowledge were engaged to canvass each of these areas and to act as local contacts. 1 These were Eastern Cape Breton (Jenna MacNeil), western Cape Breton (Derrick and Melody Cameron), Antigonish and Pictou County (Trueman Matheson), and Halifax and mainland (Caroline Cameron). Tracey Dares-MacNeil collected data on Gaelic in the music industry before leaving the project to give birth to her first child, Jessie Helen. Gaeltalk Communications surveyed published Gaelic sources to provide an estimation of the number of Gaelic poets once active in Nova Scotia, and Jonathan Dembling provided invaluable assistance in census analysis and in the production of graphics for the report. The Problem of Culture and Identity One of the most difficult challenges for this report was also one of the most basic—how to determine what constituted Nova Scotia’s Gaelic culture? Cultural identity is fundamentally about being a part of one recognizable culture rather than another and is, therefore, highly communal. However, just where the individual is located within one cultural group and where the boundaries between that group and another are drawn can also be quite idiosyncratic — a fundamental tension, that makes analysis a complicated and, at times, controversial undertaking. Cultural identity is an amalgam of a large number of multi-faceted and often contradictory elements: personality, race, language, religion, sex, age, occupation, wealth, social standing, political affiliation, marital status, family, community, region, province, nation, and society, among others. At these points of intersection — and particularly where these points of intersection occur between cultural groups — identity is subjected to especially heavy but often invisible strains. Cultural identity must be fluid enough to accommodate these various demands but also sufficiently rigid to have meaningful distinctiveness. Many cultural groups have a series of formal social structures that help stabilize culture and reinforce the sense of shared identity. In a modern, bureaucratic society these may include, among other things, an educational system, a legal system, and a system of governance that have grown out of the particular language and culture and that, in turn, support and shape them, enhancing their viability and prestige and, in most instances, establishing recognizable standards of excellence. Usually associated with these institutions of social control is a standard, literary language with clearly defined legal status and some form of media — print, radio, television, etc. — which operates in that language, serving as a mass outlet for the expression of the group’s cultural arts and reinforcing the group’s cultural perspective on events. Some cultures, by contrast, find themselves subsumed within others — often after outright conflict and conquest at some point in their history. In this sort of arrangement they frequently lack many, and in some cases, all, of these formal structures for identifying, stabilizing, and reinforcing their culture. Instead, they are placed in the contradictory situation where the chief institutions of social control are not rooted in their culture or language and are effectively barred to those individuals most rooted in the native culture, who would normally play the most active part in determining their direction and function. Instead of playing a supporting and reinforcing role, these institutions actually undermine the minority group’s social structure, culture, and language and erode its sense of a distinctive and worthy identity. 2 As more and more of the minority group assimilate into the dominant society, the issue of what constitutes the boundaries of cultural identity for the minority group becomes increasingly problematic. It is not simply a case of one group getting smaller and another group getting larger. Many of those becoming a functional part of the dominant society are unable or unwilling to shed their former cultural identity — or at least their sense of cultural identity, which is not always the same thing. This desire to be a part of both cultures helps legitimize the process of external mediation of the minority group’s culture by also challenging the central importance of a fully functional culture to the minority group’s identity. Take, for example, people of impeccable Acadian descent who have been thoroughly assimilated into English-speaking society. They may have been raised with no knowledge of the French language or Acadian traditions and may be indistinguishable from their English neighbours with whom they interact