Scotland and the Arctic – Stories, Film, Song, Poetry, Exhibitions and 50,000 Barnacle Geese

Two weeks of events are planned in Dumfries and Galloway to explore Scotland’s remarkable relationship with the Arctic and the threat to the region from climate change.

Scotland and the Arctic: A Conversation is planned for 8 to 20 October and involves a wide range of inspiring activities in and around Dumfries.

It will be the largest event organised by A Year of Conversation 2019, whose Creative Director is Dumfries poet Tom Pow, and is timed to coincide with the annual migration of Barnacle Geese from the Arctic to south west Scotland.

Co-presented with The Scottish International Storytelling Festival, it will feature international storytellers from Canada, such as Dawne McFarlane, and Greenland. Other highlights will include storytelling at Moat Brae (the national Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling) where the guests will include Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, an Aboriginal storyteller, cultural educator artist and writer. Another person taking part will be Jessie Kleeman, Inuit poet and performance artist.

There will also be a Wild Goose Weekend, a film festival, children’s events and a day of conversation about Scotland and the Arctic, featuring storytellers, poets, naturalists and academics, as part of Glasgow University’s marking 50 years in Dumfries.

There will also be the chance to see photography and film created by Colin Tennant, who is from Dumfries and Galloway, and Dr. Saskia Coulson (Coulson & Tennant) who have been documenting the rapid changes taking place in the Arctic.

Scotland and the Arctic will also look at how Scots have been involved with The Arctic over the centuries – sometimes as scientific explorers adding to the sum of human knowledge, at other times as whalers exploiting and endangering its wildlife. Robyn Stapleton will be singing songs about whaling as part of one key storytelling event.

Pow, who has visited the Arctic as a writer and storyteller and who has written a Radio 4 play about the famed Orcardian, John Rae (Aglooka: John Rae and the Fate of the Franklin Expedition) says: “This event is an opportunity to think about our past, present and future links with one of the most wondrous and fragile places on Earth.

“It once seemed very distant, but the inter-connections between what is happening there and its global impact bring it into greater focus.

“The history of Scotland’s relationship to the Arctic has been one of exploration and exploitation.

“The undoubted heroism of early Polar explorers, such as Dumfries-born Sir John Richardson, subject of a talk by Professor Ted Cowan, has to be seen alongside the remorseless work of the whalers from east coast ports like Dundee and Aberdeen.

“Nowadays, there are concerns of fresh exploitation of natural resources, of the effects of climate change which can be ‘read’ in the behaviours and feeding habits of the Arctic geese which land here each autumn, and of the impact of a global culture on fragile ecologies.

“In short, the time has come for Scotland to re-evaluate its connections to and relationships with the Arctic.”

Scotland and the Arctic considers narrative, history, representation (visual and literary), environment and ecology and artistic engagement between Scotland and the Arctic.

It is being organised in partnership with the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Moat Brae National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling, Glasgow University School of Inter-Disciplinary Studies, Dumfries, WWT Caerlaverock Wetlands Centre, Robert Burns Film Theatre and Highlight Arts.

Scotland and the Arctic programme:

For the full details see www.ayearofconversation.com – full programme available September 2.

Among the events taking place are:

• Wednesday 2 October: Dumfries Academy, unveiling of a plaque to Sir John Richardson (1787-1865) – Surgeon, natural historian and Arctic explorer.
• 8-12 October: Scotland and the Arctic Film Festival
• Tuesday 8 October: Moat Brae, 6.15-7.30 pm, festival launch with opening of exhibition Polar Bears in Picture Books. By invitation.
• Wednesday 9 October: Outside The Stove, 7-8pm. Geese Over The Town! In anticipation of Wild Goose Weekend, join us at this family event to have a gander at wild pink footed geese as they fly over the town on their migration path to the Solway Estuary.
• Friday 11 October: RBC, 7pm Atanjarjut, The Fast Runner, the first feature film in the Inuktitut language.
• Saturday 12 October: RBC, 7.30 pm Film, photography and creativity in the Arctic. Join Colin Tennant and Dr. Saskia Coulson to learn about their recent photography and film assignments, as they discuss the creative process, the difficulties and the urgency of documenting this important but rapidly changing environment.
• Saturday 12th, Sunday 13th October: Wild Goose Weekend. WWT Caerlaverock Wetland Centre, Eastpark Farm, Caerlaverock, DG1 4RS. (01387 770200)
• Friday 18th, Jessie Kleeman, Inuit poet and performance artist, Moat Brae.
• Saturday 19th October: A Conversation about Scotland and the Arctic. Glasgow University, Rutherford McCowan, Crichton, Dumfries DG1 4ZE, 10 am-4.30pm. Speakers include Paula Williams – Curator Maps, Mountaineering and Polar Collections, the NLS; Jessie Kleeman – Greenland Inuit poet and artist; Canadian storytellers, Dawne McFarlane; Dr David Borthwick (Glasgow University Dumfries) who runs the M.Phil, ‘Reading the Environment’; Dr Natalie Welden (Glasgow University Dumfries) – expert on plastics and their impact on sea-life; Brian Morrell, Centre Manager, WWT Caerlaverock Wetland Centre and many more.
• Saturday 19th October, Moat Brae, storytelling with Dawne McFarlane, Director of the Toronto Storytelling Festival and Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, an Aboriginal storyteller, cultural educator artist, writer, choreographer, and film script writer from the Northern Tutchone Nation, Athabaskan language spoken in northeastern Yukon in Canada. With whaling songs from winner of the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year, Robyn Stapleton.