Rural Europe on the move English_chapt1_6 | Page 39

,
,
FINDING A SENSE OF PLACE
,
Duthchas :
connection
to the land
,
For Vanessa Halhead of the
reclaiming of the land for the
community: not everyone was an
indigenous islander, but everyone
that had come to live on the island
understood and embraced the
Highland and Island Forum team, concept of ‘Dùthchas’. For me, this
who had been working on community meant having to give something of
empowerment in Scotland for yourself - time, energy, skills - to build
decades, the ‘sense of place’ was the community, to make sure things
right at the centre of it all. The Gaelic worked. It meant being faithful to
speaking people of the Highlands the stories I collected and ensuring
and islands called it ‘Dùthchas’, they were passed on, looking after
(pronounced dooo-hass), a word the heritage, the culture, teaching
representing the notion of kinship children about wildlife and nature.
with the land, of belonging. “It is
‘Dùthchas’ goes back to the ancient
a rootedness, an understanding of tribal Celtic notion of ‘stewardship’ of
what makes them what they are,” she land – as opposed to ownership by
explains, “which has to do with the feudal power. Transposed to modern
history, to do with their families, to do times, it means “you don’t own the
with their physical environment. And it’s land, you are owned by it,” as the great
the amalgam of all those things, which Scottish poet Norman MacCaig so
defines for a person what is special eloquently put it.
about this place that they live in. But
9. The Eigg wildlife ranger with
Vanessa Halhead on the left and
islander Colin Carr in the background
“You don’t own the land,
you are owned by it.”
Norman MacCaig
As the steward or custodian of the
it’s also incredibly important for people land, you look after it. This gives you a when they actually want to work for greater claim to it than the absentee manage it themselves, and that belief
that place because they have this great landlord who placed a monetary had carried it through to a successful
passion for it, this strong image of what value on the land since it was seen conclusion. It was when we saw that
their place is and what it should be. So as a purely financial asset, one to be other folks started to believe in it too,
it’s spiritual, it’s historical, it’s factual, it’s bought and sold. including Scottish politicians and
cultural.”
For the Eigg people, that ‘sense
of place’ had been central to their
This claim of a modern stewardship
decision-makers, that we knew we
was at the heart of the islanders’ had won over their trust. It was a real
campaign to buy the island and turning point.
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