The stoor an reek aff the Clavie gars ilka ee in the lane greet.
Justine Smithies is a transgender woman bidin in Cruden Bay, the smaa North-East traditional fishin toon, wi her wife an ae bairn. She warks as a marine electronics engineer on ships. Baith her wife an job predate her surgical, legal an social transition tae trans-womanhood. She gied us permission tae engage wi her on a puckle issues aroon trans in general, an the lived experience o bein trans in Scotland’s rural North-East.
We hae twal years tae stap the warld temperature risin abuin the 1.5 degrees merk that’d indicate the stairt o real destructive weather an daith fir thoosans, mibbie millions.
A toun’s identity hings on its infrastructure. A real toun maun boast a wheen kirks, chippies, howffs o various repute. An it maun hae a decent fitba team.
The picturesque gait o the Dee gangs wi ye as ye pooer yer wey alang Deeside, feastin yer een on the Silver Birks thrang at the roadside, the saumon loupin oot the saft watters o the river.
A recent BBC-comissioned YouGov survey shawed that aroon 61% o Scots got their sense o identity fae their kennin o the History o Scotland. Yet mony pupils at some o Scotland’s maist kenspeckle scuils will hae this week sat their English History GCSE, efter studyin sic courses as Life in Elizabethan England, wi the result that bairns an young adults dinnae hae a basic grunnin in the history o their ain country, tae the displeisure o pupils an academics baith, an the risk tae the sense o identity o the pupils.
Davie Donaldson is a young Scottish Traiveller. He has a shock o Scandinavian yella hair, paired wi a pale, honest face. He is a student at Aiberdeen University, an a spokesperson fir young Traivellers. Although Davie is nae mair nor twenty year auld, he is richt at the hert o a debate that has raged fir centuries. Whit exactly is the place an whit are the richts o Scotland’s Traiveller population?
