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Kist o Riches

A young lassie fae Lewis sings An Eala air a’ Chuan, ‘the swan swims the faem’, a sang she kens fae Benbecula, learnt aff a kenspeckle traditional singer. The fowk wha bide in the Isles are brocht thegither by the Gaelic.

There’s a beauty tae these islands, that doesnae gang wi the seasons but lingers aye. A beauty and a sadness. A sadness, borne o longing fir the auld days an auld wyes.

The toom biggins o lang deid ferms an hoosies tell o an ancient history

Mindin oan whit’s gane afore an whaur we cam fae can involve makin mane owre the losses o fowk an culture. But it isnae the ainly gait fowk ging doon here when engagin wi their past.

There’s fowk that try tae bring their heritage wi them intae the 21st century, whiles even wi a wye tae mak a business o it.

A puckle years syne, Lochboisdale in Sooth Uist wis hame tae ane o the offices fir Tobar an Dualchais – the kist o riches – In these offices, thoosans o oors o early recordins o auld sangs, tales an ither siclike oral traditions fae aroon Scotland were owreset tae new digital records, protectin them fir anither generation. This produced the Kist o Riches.

Hebridean sang is a gey important pairt o the kist.

There wis mony different elements tae the wark.

Murdo Nicholson wis ane o the wheen o cataloguers owre the country that noted doon details anent each individual track. Wha wis recordit, whaur an when an whit wis oan it.

Ilka cataloguer hud their specialities, sic as piping, sang etc.

Catrina Scott wis a digitiser, wha owreset auld formats intae digital files. This made it easier tae spreid the files online, as weels makkin it easier fir the cataloguers tae wark oan the material.

A gey important strand o the wark wis tae save auld recordings fae their disintigratin tapes afore they were lost. They brocht thegither aa the machinery tae mak sic a conversion possible. The wark wis a sair tyav at times, but Catrina enjoyed luggin in tae the auld sangs an stories as she warked, especially the anes fae her ain island.

The wark attracted interest fae aa aboot. Archie MacKay fae the local paper cam roon tae finn oot mair. He wis interestit in the technical side o the wark, an whether there wid be opportunities tae tak oan mair staff.

Shona MacDonald gied him an innin intae the wark, an intae some o the ither leids they were ettlin tae deal wi. Fir exaimple Tajik an Uzbek, in recordins fae Afghanistan.

The skills the team originally developed wi Scottish materials can noo be pit tae guid yaise in ither areas.
Airchie gets twa-three photaes tae ging wi his airticle.

Shona also shows Airchie hou the wabsteid fir Kist o Riches will wark.

As they blethered thegither anent local material, their discussion naiturally turns tae gaelic.

Airchie wis gey tane wi the idea.

He left chuffed tae hae a story tae pit in the paper. The naitural bilingualism o the isles providit a suprisin new opportunity through the kist o riches.

Clilstore English VersionGaelic Version

Short url:   https://clilstore.eu/cs/5904