Emerging tradition bearers

February 11, 2022

Host: Bernadette Campbell

Guests: Lili Watson and Carmen MacArthur

It was a time of remembering, reflection and praise, as host Bernadette Campbell, Lili Watson and Carmen MacArthur took us into the homes of Gaelic elders who inspired them to love Gaelic language, culture and community. Carmen and Lili shared their admiration, memories, grief, challenges and inspiration through stories of baking, singing, visits and farming. They each shared songs, and Carmen read a poem she wrote after the loss of her friends, neighbours and mentors, Mary and Vince MacKinnon of Gillisdale.

Carmen MacArthur

Lili Watson

What We Heard

Lili began by offering a detailed description of a visit with Mickey John H. (Michael MacNeil) of Baile Sheumais (Jamesville, Victoria County). She spoke about the intimacy of sitting around his small kitchen table, as they enjoy a drink and chocolates, sing songs and share stories and news. “His values and the hospitality he shows everyone who steps into his house is immeasurable,” she said.

She recalls Mickey's joy in greeting visitors, and in sharing a song with her and her brother Colin, who is Mickey's neighbour. Mickey always sings the crowd pleaser Fail il o. “It never gets old,” she said, “because of the heart he puts into the song when he is singing it. You can really feel that . . . I think when singing that song, the reason Mickey is so happy is because he is with people who are enjoying it with him. I am sure that there were points in his life when he sang that song and people didn’t appreciate it. I hope when I am an older Gaelic speaker, I can have people come into my kitchen and they can enjoy a song to the same extent that I enjoy Mickey’s singing."

Lili said that she would be lost without having Gaelic language and culture in her life, and the elders like Mickey. "I don’t think I’d have good critical thinking skills, I think I’d be ignorant of other people’s languages and cultures,” she said. Then again, she said some aspects of her life would be easier. She wouldn’t grieve what is being lost with the aging and passing of our beautiful tradition bearers, the last of their kind in Nova Scotia. “But I wouldn’t trade not having that grief for the world, because it makes me who I am,” she said.

Another challenge she feels as a young person is the stigma that Gaelic still carries, and her choice to take Celtic Studies at University. But she listens to a little voice inside her that says, Cum romhad, ‘S fhiach e. (Keep going, it’s worth it.)

Carmen MacArthur is a bit further on her Gaelic learning path, as a mother, farmer and Gaelic teacher from Gillisdale, Inverness County. Yet she can relate to Lili’s joy and grief. She misses her Gaelic-speaking neighbours, Mary and Vince MacKinnon, who passed away over the last two years.

She visited Mary and Vince weekly during the 10 years she lived beside them. She often found Vince working outside and Mary in the kitchen, usually baking. “Tha mi ‘s a bharaille fhluir an duigh (I am in the flour barrel today),” Mary would say as Carmen came inside. All surfaces were covered with biscuits or cookies cooling. She would make tea and make sure Carmen ate at least four biscuits.

“She got as much joy out of watching you eating her baking as you did eating it,” said Carmen. Mary gave most of her baking away. “She had a freezer in her basement that was just for baking. She had tons of company just from the community, and Gaelic learners. She sent every single person home with a bag of her baking. She passed away a year ago, but we are just getting to the bottom of her baking now.”

“The older Gaelic speakers led my journey,” Carmen said. “It wasn’t so much about the language as being with them. So that is the main reason why I moved where I live now.”

Carmen learned from Mary and Vince the Gaelic language and ways of Am Baile (home/farm): looking after animals, gardening, hospitality, feeding and also the web of kinship connections in that part of Southwest Margaree.

“I look to Mairi as a role model. Just how many people she welcomed and she just gave people that feeling of acceptance and that feeling of home."

What struck, moved or surprised you in what you heard?

Themes and quotes from our small group conversations (read all the comments here)

The dead aren't gone from us, they are with us in our stories, in our memories, in the love and kindness they shared with us and that we can share with others. They aren't gone, only changed.
How do we cultivate spontaneous visits with our friends and neighbours? How do we "be at home" for them to feel like it's okay to stop by?
Tha e math e cho math a bhith a'faicinn daoine oga agus iad trang ag obair air bailtean-fearainn agus làn Ghaidhlig (It is so nice to see young people who are full of Gaelic busy working on farms.)·
I agree with Lili that if it was the last day on earth the best way to spend that time would be to sing Faill ill o with Mickey John H
The sorrow about everything that is lost; sharing food and drink at the same time.
Both Lili and Carmen reinforced for me my strong belief in the importance of visiting.
It is very challenging to see the beautiful older Gaels leave us in NS, but they have left a great gift. They offer us a way of living well, and I can see Lili and Carmen stepping into their shoes as speakers and tradition bearers. They are role models for us.
Incredible and heartwarming stories shared tonight! It filled me up. Taing mhor!
When Carmen said that it got dark when visiting with Peter Jack unnoticed, that is total immersion in the moment of time.
I want to learn the songs that people sing to each other filled with joy.
Anns a' phios bhardachd sin, a bha cho alainn, thuirt i nach robh duine a' bruidhinn na Gaidhlig nas motha air na cnuic. Saoilidh mi gu bheil ise a' deanamh cinnteach gum bidh Gaidhlig an-comhnaidh ga bruidhinn air na cnuic. (In that piece of poetry, that was so beautiful, she said that there was no one in the hills speaking Gaelic anymore. I think she's making sure that Gaelic will always be spoken in the hills.)
Remembering watching my mother making homemade cheese...the milk, the curds, the rennet, huge pot on the stove. Mixing in the salt with her hands, then putting it in the mold with cheesecloth, and the best part, using a big old tree and two long boards creating a press by loading a bunch of big rocks on the top of the boards until the watery liquid started coming out. I need to remember this forever and make sure my children and grandchildren know that it happened here.

Emerging tradition bearers

What We Heard

What struck, moved or surprised you in what you heard?

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