LOSS of memory is the great fear of our time. The frightening prospect is raised by the threat of dementia, and that debilitating condition can be particularly difficult to deal with where there is no community, no feeling of belonging and no participation in a shared culture that can help to retain identity.
To that extent, the Western Isles might be said to have the advantage of being more of community than many places and of having a distinctive culture that acts as a valuable bonding agent between individuals.
Stornoway-based An Lanntair, a hub for creativity in the Western Isles, founded its Arora project “on the core values of community care, creative spirit and shared culture”, in particularly promoting Gaelic and exploring the role of bilingualism in relation to dementia.
Funded by the Life Changes Trust (LCT), Arora’s aim is to reach out to islanders with the aim of creating “a dementia-friendly community that reflects the place and its people”.
In pursuit of that noble aim, this week An Lanntair is holding a Cuimhne/Memory Symposium featuring talks, workshops, exhibitions, films, island foods and traditional music.
Speakers include Professor Tim Ingold, a social anthropologist from Aberdeen University, who will give the keynote talk on the Sustainability of … Everything.
Dr Cathlin Macaulay, from Edinburgh University, will present archive footage from the School of Scottish Studies, while Anna Buchanan, director of the LCT, will discuss how people affected by dementia can exercise more control in their lives.
Among the exhibitions, Lucy Robertson, an “intelligent textiles” researcher from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, will showcase a Sonic Flock of knitted and stitched birds, while Eyes as Big as Plates, a collaboration between Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth, presents images of solitary figures dressed in materials from the surrounding landscape.
The Woven Communities project, meanwhile, combines traditional techniques with different materials, both ancient and new. There will also be commissioned pieces from Uist artists and photographs by Mhairi Law.
Workshop subjects include traditional isles toy-making, spinning, printmaking, and Gaelic work songs, while Land of Songs, a film by Aldona Watts, celebrates a group of Lithuanian women who keep alive their village’s folk songs.
Underlying the entire programme is the recognition of “a need for people who are living with dementia and those in their circle of care to be part of an inclusive community”. And, with that aim in mind, Stornoway sounds like a good place to be.
More information about the Cuimhne/Memory Symposium, which takes place today [MON] and tomorrow, can be found on the lanntair.com website.
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