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Comhairle na Gàidhlig -
The Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia will be offering a Gaelic
language Workshop from Monday February 27 to Friday March 2,
2012. This workshop targets tutors and learners whose Gaelic
language ability is at an intermediate level.
The workshop will be held in a residence in Pictou County and
accommodations will be available on-site or billeted nearby, so
that the whole week may be an immersion experience.
The number of participants will be limited, and selection will
be based on finding a number of available students who are at a
comparable level of language ability. A range of considerations,
including the students’ potential to contribute to their
language community, will also be taken into account.
Registration is $300, including lodgings and food for the week,
with $150 bursaries available to community learners / tutors.
Please contact us if you
are interested and would like more information. The deadline for
submitting your name is February 16. Contact Caroline Cameron,
258-5768,
comhairlenagaidhlig@gmail.com.
Comhairle na Gàidhlig is
now setting out on a planning project to define our activities
for the next few years. With such a range of work in front of
us, it is time to consult with communities and government, and
based on this, focus our energies on priorities. Surveys and
information gathering will begin in January 2012. We look
forward to hearing the range of ideas around us and welcome any
input. Please contact us if you would like to be interviewed on
your ideas for Gaelic development.
We are starting the
planning for our 2012 provincial gathering, to be held on May
26. Alternating our Annual General Meeting each year between
Cape Breton Island Mainland Nova Scotia, we are looking to the
mainland this year. We will be basing the event on the successes
of last year, with Gaelic language workshops and on planning for
Gaelic development in our communities. Again, we will host a
dinner and Ceilidh in the evening and Are pleased to announce
Rodney Macdonald, CEO of St Ann’s Gaelic College as our speaker,
with Joe Murphy as Master of Ceremonies.
This year the Council
was pleased to be able to hire a returning student for summer
employment. Responsibilities of the student were helping to plan
An Là Mór in Port Hawkesbury, as well as on-site work during the
day of the event. Other duties included organizational tasks,
updates on the Gaelic Council’s website and events calendar, and
assisting and representing the Council at community Gaelic
events.
Comhairle na Gàidhlig
will be applying for funding to hire returning university
students for summer employment in 2012. We are hosting these
positions in Inverness County, the site of the Administrative
Office, however the positions are open to students from across
the province. All applicants must have access to reliable
transportation, a computer, and access to high-speed internet.
Applicants must be
returning full-time university students, and they should be
studying in Celtic, cultural or community studies, or have
experience in Gaelic language and cultural activities. Their
work will include:
- Assisting with
administration, research, report-writing, and communications
- Set-up and assistance at community Gaelic language and
cultural events through summer
- Membership development through representation at events, and
database updating
If full funding is
received, the 14 week position will provide experience in
communications, promotions and research work for students.
Pending funding approval, the anticipated start date will be at
the beginning of May 2012. Applications must be postmarked or
E-mailed by 6:00 pm, April 6, and include a cover letter,
resume, and names and contact information of 3 references.
Comhairle na Gàidhlig
Staffing
c/o Caroline Cameron
RR 2 Inverness, NS
B0E 1N0
comhairlenagaidhlig@gmail.com
By May 2012, we will
have completed a program of making our annual presentations to
Municipal Councils throughout the Gaelic regions of the
province. We have been very well received, and the meetings have
been informative for us; developing personal connections within
the governance environment that we’re working has been
encouraging. Through this project, we’ve been able to raise the
Gaelic profile a little more as some local newspapers have
covered our presentations. Our presentation is an overview of
our concerns, an update on our plans for the next few years, and
a request for their support in principal, and financially when
possible.
Response in financial
terms and in terms of a show of support from the grass-roots
level has been gratifying to date.
We will continue to work
with communities to discuss how to provide more informal and
accessible ways for people to share Gaelic socially. Gàidhlig
aig Baile Classes are an essential piece in growing Gaelic, but
every learner needs a community of speakers and a place where
they can gather with other speakers and share and practice.
A province-wide
gathering, An Là Mór 2011, was held at the Port Hawkesbury Fire
Hall. Communities from across the province gathered to share in
their common interest - Gaelic. Comhairle na Gàidhlig was
pleased to have guest speaker Linden MacIntyre, as well as Mary
Jane Lamond, acting as our Master of Ceremonies for the evening.
The day itself consisted of two workshops aimed at the promotion
of Gaelic awareness and development, our Annual General Meeting,
as well as a trade show and family activities. A traditional
marag supper was served in the evening followed by a lively
céilidh. A big thank you to all guests, volunteers and staff who
helped make this day such a great success.
In consultation with
Gaelic instructors, the Comhairle hosted a week long immersion
workshop for learners at the intermediate/advanced level.
Thirteen people attended this event, which was held in February
at the home of Nona MacDermid, Sydney Mines. Comhairle na
Gàidhlig received support for this intiative from the Office of
Gaelic Affairs’ Gaelic Language in the Community Program, and
with such strong enrolment, the OGA also provided a second
instructor. Using the approach of staying on-site from breakfast
to late evening gave students a chance to become totally
immersed in the language, and with the help of tasks such as
baking, outings and household chores, as well as céilidhs and
Gaelic movies, the workshop was well received!
We are now planning for
another residential immersion workshop, this time scheduled for
the first week in March – details to follow.
There has been a growing
demand for a forum to discuss how Nova Scotian Gaelic is being
represented in the media, and how this can be influenced to
encourage greater participation in and support for Gaelic.
Comhairle na Gaidhlig is keen to work on this issue and we
delivered a Media Workshop offered by Ian McNeil, which focussed
on defining a message and effective use of media. Please follow
link to the outcomes of this meeting.
Report from Media Workshop, June
26, 2010
In May 2010, we hosted a
successful ‘Mini-Forum’ in Pictou County. It was a chance for
the province-wide Gaelic community to gather to celebrate and
discuss Nova Scotia Gaelic development. Following our AGM, we
discussed the focus of Comhairle’s work, and then had a
traditional Maragan dinner and an evening of entertainment.
We are beginning now to
plan our 2011 Forum event and will be developing an expanded
program, this year on Cape Breton Island. We welcome your input
and involvement. We’ll keep you posted on this event, and we
look forward to another great get-together.
As a way to gain broader
perspective and more participation in our Language Development
and Education work, we have hosted two open meetings in
Antigonish and Ainslie Glen. We’ve had very good discussions at
each, with outcomes of a general task list and direction to move
forward on communications with the Department of Education.
Notes on both these meetings are available at the links below.
All are welcome to join in this discussion, and we plan to
develop a discussion board on our website, as a way to continue
our work without the travel that is required for face-to-face
meetings.
LDE Meetings notes December 6,
2009
LDE
Meeting Notes February 22, 2010
Eilean nan Òg (Island of
Youth) is one of the most popular projects that Comhairle na
Gàidhlig has been involved with. Hosted by the Highland Village
Museum, this apprenticeship program gives youth the opportunity
to learn Gaelic language and cultural skills, such as singing,
storytelling and dancing, while introducing them to
tradition-bearers from the local community. Coordinated by noted
Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond, the program sees young people
between the ages of fourteen and eighteen take part in a
two-week paid program.
Spòrs is a program that
sees university students visiting
 elementary
schools in the province to teach children about Gaelic language
and culture through music, dance,
songs and stories. It was coordinated by the Gaelic Council and
supported by the Service Learning Program at St.
Francis Xavier University. These visits are intended to spark an
interest in Gaelic culture among young people and provide an
opportunity for university students to become Gaelic role models
in their community.
The importance of a
visual image for Gaelic Nova  Scotia
was first identified in the 2002 community consultation process
undertaken jointly by the Gaelic Council and the Department of
Tourism, Culture and Heritage. Comhairle na Gàidhlig has made
this project a priority and commissioned a visual artist to
develop an image based on extensive consultation with the
community. The image was unveiled in May, 2008 and we hope it
will serve as a rallying point for Gaelic language and culture
for years to come.
www.cainntmomhathar.com
One of the most ambitious
initiatives Comhairle na Gàidhlig has yet undertaken, Cainnt mo
Mhàthar (My Mother's Language) is a project designed to record
idiomatic, everyday Gaelic from fluent speakers in Nova Scotia.
With its third and final stage complete, the project has
produced nearly twenty-five hours of video recordings based on
an extensive questionnaire developed with the needs of language
learners in mind. Project Coordinator Shamus MacDonald and
Fieldworker Jim Watson, who volunteered his time on behalf of
the Highland Village, visited Gaelic speakers in all four Cape
Breton counties to complete the project. Their recordings
feature individuals and pairs speaking on a variety of everyday
topics including the weather, folklore, childcare, baking,
chores, music and clothing.
The Department of
Canadian Heritage and the provincial Office of Gaelic Affairs
have contributed more than $45,000 in combined funding for the
third phase of the project. This funding was used to create a
premiere website showcasing video and audio recordings of
contemporary Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton. Besides making the
Cainnt mo Mhàthar collection available online, it allowed
Comhairle na Gàidhlig to continue its fieldwork with some of the
province's best Gaelic tradition-bearers. Funding also allowed
for the inclusion of recordings from other sources as well;
including two important collections completed at the Highland
Village Museum. The completed project gives language learners
and the general public a good overview of Gaelic Nova Scotia, as
related by contemporary tradition-bearers in their native
language and available anytime, anywhere, free of charge.
Late in 2007, Comhairle
na Gàidhlig hosted a series of  twelve
community meetings in Nova Scotia. Held in collaboration with
the Office of Gaelic Affairs, the meetings represented an
opportunity for the communtiy to hear about recent inititatives,
take stock of our progress, and share ideas
for the future. The meetings also marked the
fifth anniversary of an historic community consultation process
in which the Gaelic communtiy was engaged by government. Each
evening began with clips from the Cainnt mo Mhàthar project and
ended with open discussions and an invitation to join Comhairle
na Gàidhlig. Approximately two-hundred people attended the
meetings with nearly half filling out questionnaires; their
comments have proven invaluable in defining our short and long
term vision for Gaelic Nova Scotia.
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