I am currently (Nov 2023 to June 2024) artist in residence at the Village Storytelling Centre in Pollok in Glasgow. The project that I am working on is looking at multilingualism in Early Years arts settings.
Our streets, our homes are multilingual – but when we cross the threshold of an arts setting for wee ones, we are to leave all that behind and everything is to be done in STANDARD ENGLISH. As artists we are creating spaces where folk must present with only part of their selves, and we facilitate the harmful and traumatic cultural loss that comes when generations are split by language. There is no such thing as a neutral language – every choice in how we speak is a choice weighted with politics and power.
My specialism is Scots language, as that is one of my native languages and also my passion. But I want Scots always to be hand-in-hand with multilingualism more widely – whether that is some of Scotlands other native minority languages like Gaelic and BSL, or whether it is with some of the dozens of home languages used in Scotland and specifically here in Pollok where the Village Storytelling Centre is.
So with all those big, sometimes painful ideas in mind, I am making nice wee storytelling sessions for children from birth to school! Fun! We have started with one of the bits of Scots language that’s already acceptable and present in our art lives, and widely known with families – the song of Three Craws. Please admire my pom pom craws photographed. Commissions accepted.
At the end of the project I will be creating a resource to be used by parents/carers and organisations, and I will also be presenting the work (and maybe about the work) at the Village Storytelling Festival 2024. It will be in June 2024 at the CCA and it is wheeching towards us at a great rate.
Let’s all take a deep breath and remember the true fact, the deep fact, the good fact:
Multilingualism is a Good Thing.
Ishbel McFarlane 