Canna House launches 'Solas' event with appeal for island inspirations

Canna House launched its ‘Solas' Event Programme this week with a call for papers for the 2020 Solas Sea Symposium, seeking proposals from all walks of life connected with our coasts and islands.

 

The week-long summer programme also includes the CannaNotCannes Film Festival and was inspired by the successful production of the ‘Solas’ film, based on the life of folklorist and photographer Margaret Fay Shaw.  The events will celebrate the breadth and diversity of her work and that of her husband John Lorne Campbell.

 

Margaret and John were both fascinated by folklore and ancient culture and language, especially Gaelic.  Canna House, now managed by the National Trust for Scotland, was their home from the 1930s to the 1990s and contains an extensive library and archive of their life’s work.

 

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The programme of events has been created by archivist Fiona McKenzie, who wanted the symposium to have a more creative focus.

 

When asked how she thought Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell's outlook was affected by island life, Ms McKenzie said: ‘It was their being, their entire foci.  The reason they had Canna was because John wanted to help re-establish a traditional crofting community. Canna's history, its population, language, and linguistic links were the reasons he bought the island.

 

‘People forget the land side of John, they tend to think of him as an academic, but he was a farmer, too, and that’s not often recognised.  His work improving Canna and with the Sea League, fighting for the rights of the Minch fishermen, were hugely important to him.

 

‘For Margaret, the landscape of Canna gave her the opportunity to capture a way of life in a way that hadn’t been done before, the same with her photos of life on Uist.

 

'Her photos of the people and animals in their day-to-day environment are full of warmth and naturalness.  She captured the hardship in their faces because she had wet feet too - she didn’t just visit for a couple of months, this young lassie from Pittsburgh gave up the comforts of that life to live in a croft house with no electricity, milking cows and everything that went with it – thinking about why she did that is fascinating.  The land and sea are at the heart of both Margaret and John’s lives.’

 

Ms McKenzie will also be leading a Cuairt Cladaich, Shoreline Walk, where participants will explore the shoreline of Canna Bay, sharing songs and poems that connect with the landscape.

 

She added: ‘We’re extremely fortunate with the wealth of resources we have in Canna House today to use as inspiration for projects both creative and academic, and to bring new audiences to the wonderful collections in the National Trust for Scotland.

 

'With the advent of the Year of Coasts and Waters, I decided to develop a programme of events which will provide something for everyone, all themed around enlightenment and the sea.

 

'The programme will give us a chance to explore exactly what inspired John and Margaret Campbell to capture and display the world around them in the Hebrides, over the course of their long lives.’

 

Speaking on the call for papers she explained: ‘We've given a wide theme as we wanted it to be as open as possible to allow people to interpret as they wanted.  It doesn’t have to have an academic focus; we'd just like to hear what people think about their environment and how it affects them as a person.

 

'You could be a writer, or a singer, or perhaps someone who travels to the islands as part of your work.  I'm really excited to see what people come up with!’

 

For more information, or to submit a proposal, email Fiona MacKenzie at fmackenzie@nts.org.uk.