Identity in the Scottish Diaspora

[jfraser]

Admittedly, my patience with crossing this particular bridge is wearing rather thin.

In Nova Scotia, as in Scotland, there have been systematic attempts to eliminate the Gaelic language and culture. People were beaten for speaking Gaelic at school and mocked for their accented English. All schools were in English (or later French).

After decades of fighting to preserve and maintain our culture and bring it back from the verge of extinction, we have finally made the English speaking population of the province see it as an asset rather than something to be stamped out.

I mention this only to explain the passion and pain that the subject elicits. To fight so hard to preserve and protect our Highland Scottish culture we view as precious only to be nonchalantly brushed aside by some of our native-born Scottish cousins and told we have no claim to our peoplehood is more than a difference of opinion.

As a member of a diaspora Highland Scottish community in Canada, I take great umbridge in being told we are simply Canadian full stop and the Scottish fact of our cultural reality us unworthy of mention, label or recognition.

Of course I'm a proud Canadian but that doesn't tell my whole story. I'm a Canadian of the Scottish variety and we have left an indelible mark on the creation of this nation.

I obviously can't make my Scottish friends on this forum agree with me and stop thinking we are not Scottish by any definition but I will ask them to stop voicing that view on the forum once and for all.

An uncle from my mothers side of the family, talks about being hit at school by the teacher every time the children spoke Gaelic in the school vicinity. This was in the Outer Hebrides and I estimate this to be around the late 1920's.

My own experience shows that there is a close connection between the Gaelic speaking peoples of Canada and Scotland and apart from geographical distance, culturally they are not miles apart.

[The Q]

An uncle from my mothers side of the family, talks about being hit at school by the teacher every time the children spoke Gaelic in the school vicinity. This was in the Outer Hebrides and I estimate this to be around the late 1920's.

My own experience shows that there is a close connection between the Gaelic speaking peoples of Canada and Scotland and apart from geographical distance, culturally they are not miles apart.

This had certainly ceased by the early 1970's when I was at school in the outer Hebridies, it was not unknown for the odd Gaelic speaking teacher to converse with pupils in Gaelic (leaving me a non Gaelic speaker somewhat lost), But most Teachers were from the mainland and only spoke English.
The banning of Speaking Gaelic comes from a long way back, when the Lowland Scots Presbyterian church dominated the Scottish Education system which is totally separate from that in England. The lowland Scots still saw the Gaels as a race for "civilising"..

[jfraser]

This had certainly ceased by the early 1970's when I was at school in the outer Hebridies, it was not unknown for the odd Gaelic speaking teacher to converse with pupils in Gaelic (leaving me a non Gaelic speaker somewhat lost), But most Teachers were from the mainland and only spoke English.
The banning of Speaking Gaelic comes from a long way back, when the Lowland Scots Presbyterian church dominated the Scottish Education system which is totally separate from that in England. The lowland Scots still saw the Gaels as a race for "civilising"..

Indeed, there were vast differences between the 1920's and the 1970's. I know in the 1970's it was possible in some Scottish schools to obtain recognised qualifications in Gaelic.

[The Q]

Indeed, there were vast differences between the 1920's and the 1970's. I know in the 1970's it was possible in some Scottish schools to obtain recognised qualifications in Gaelic.

Indeed, you can get a Scottish Certificate of Education ( I believe now called Scottish Qualification certificates) in Gaelic Native Speakers, or Gaelic Learners, the same at Higher level at school and then go all the way to a University masters degrees in Gaelic studies.
My brother, I don't know which certificates he has, but he learnt Gaelic amongst the kids at primary school in the outer Hebrides so was both a native speaker having learnt it colloquially in the Hebridies, and a learner being an English born outsider.

Unfortunately as I was older, after a time at school in the Hebridies, they realised I was a fish out of water being unable to converse with the local kids who spoke Gaelic most of the time in the playground, and also that school was very behind in it's education. The council then sent me to Inverness to school for exam level education, where all the kids spoke and were taught 100% in English, Where even other Pupils, Gaelic speakers from the Hebrides or west coast mainland, 90% of the time chose to speak in English between themselves.
Had I been able to Speak Gaelic then I would probably have gone to the Nicholson Institute in Stornoway for my Exam level education. http://nicolsoninstitute.org/