Using culture to rebuild personal and community confidence

Shân Ashton, has recently been using ideas around culture and identity to support the rebuilding of personal and community self-esteem amongst the older, Welsh speaking population in northern Snowdonia, especially amongst the older males.  After successive rural crises and socio-economic changes such esteem and confidence had hit rock bottom and these communities were becoming culturally silenced and depressed, especially as they came under pressure from differing cultural practices and ‘cultures of experteeism’.  This programme involved initiating community groups and developing activities that were entertaining, relevant and fun - given the depressing contexts the ‘having fun’ bit was extremely important! Whilst any one of the activities may have had an explicit purpose, the best bit was always the unintended consequences in the subsequent discussions. These have included re-discovering lost pieces of ‘people’s poetry’ (englynion); very useful knowledge about poaching techniques; traditional methods of birth control (stinging nettles in man’s socks prior to any related activity!!!) and other traditional medicinal and herbal lore; old practices relevant to today’s need for sustainability and environmental sensitivity and so on.   The process has helped re-build a collective confidence in local knowledge, traditions and skills and the possibilities of adapting these to the changing work and social environments.  Shan, from Bangor University’s Lifelong Learning department, explained with passion how powerful and positive this ongoing experience is for these men and their communities.

Investing in a maypole...  Locally in Yorkshire, Alison Drake from Castleford recently explained how their having a maypole able to be used in different parts of Castleford for maypole dances, has been a great if small way of re-building pride and confidence in Castleford.

Our history helps define us...  A different approach using culture came from a Carnegie contact in Cornwall.  St Dennis is one of the only clay mining villages where the clay mine still operates and is the mainstay of the local economy, but it is due to close in 2009.  Almost every job in St Dennis is dependent in some way or other on the mine.  Tourism happens elsewhere.  It is a closely knit and historic community, remarkably little affected by the usual in and out migration typically in the UK.   The whole community has been depressed and unable to see how to go forward.

 In 2008 Restormel Borough Council commissioned Wildworks to use art to help the village find its way forward.  Mercedes Kemp and others worked with the villagers during Spring 2008, first looking at the history of the village, with school children interviewing parents, grandparents and other ‘elders’ of the community to find out about the past.  They collected photographic evidence and other materials to join with this and documented the history as memory cards.  They then documented St. Dennis today and finally they imagined how it might be.  This whole process became an intense community activity and it has helped start the process of building their own sense of pride and recognition.  It is a first step, but it seems that it will help them to engage more pro-actively and positively in debating their future and identifying new directions.

The results of this documentation of local history have recently been displayed in the British Museum.

Could you use history, art and culture to help build confidence in your community or do you already?
For more on this story see

http://www.wildworks.biz/index.php/projects/clayproject.html

Read more about Mercedes Kemp and Wildworks

http://www.wildworks.biz/index.php/aboutwildworks/team/90-mercedeskemp.html