Guthan Muinntir a' Bhac (360G-BNG-TFC-2024-01299)

Strengthening Sgìre a' Bhac as a Gaelic speaking community through an engagement programme with our heritage collection.  BACKGROUND Back is a Gaelic speaking community on the outskirts of Stornoway.  Although it's a relatively small area, it offers a microcosm of Gaelic history, with stories of Land Wars, Clearance, landlords and emigration; but also a deeply rooted Gaelic society still actively crofting and with Gaelic still the daily language for most.   Comann Eachdraidh Sgìre a' Bhac (Cebac) was re-established in 2018 to record the people and the history, folklore and traditions of the district.  Our work is mainly in Gaelic (with English translation where appropriate) and our long term strategy to to become a cultural and economic driver in the area. We work with groups across all age groups, and offer learners the relatively rare opportunity to engage with a Gaelic crofting community. We are currently building a community archive, to create a rich resource reflecting the history of our community and its members.  We are working to recover as much as possible of the previous archive (the earlier incarnation of Cebac ceased in the 1980s), including irreplaceable audio and visual recordings. Our research indicates there is additional material held in personal collections locally, and we plan to augment this by collecting oral history with current generations, through individual and collective interviews. This funding request is to support a community engagement programme, marrying supporting Gaelic as a community language and our efforts to engage people with our Gaelic heritage.  1. Rolling events programme informal weekly drop-in sessions to contribute archive, connect with other community members.  This will be led in Gaelic and others encouraged to try a few words or practise their Gaelic. There will be 50 sessions/year comprising 30 weeks, open to all10 weeks, focussed on younger members of our community.10 weeks, focussed on newer members of the community and learners We hope that targeted sessions will act as a bridge to encourage participate in wider CE events Oidhche Bhaile: Monthly participative sessions featuring recent archive discoveries or curated on local themes, e.g. weaving, transhumance, fishing, Loch a'Tuath, important calendar days such as Latha Buidhe Bealltainn.   These will usually be led by Coinneach MacIomhair or Margaret Stewart, both experienced in drawing out stories and leading events. Some will be guided walks around local areas of interest, or activity days - like a day in the peats or at the àirigh   These events will in turn contribute to the archive, and material for our website and social media channels. 10 sessions/year, offering curated content and social/conversational opportunity 2.  marketing and communications support. We would like funding to create a communications/ marketing programme to encourage community participation in these collection efforts and events. This will be a test and learn programme, centred on local press, local mailshots, leaflets & posters, social media outreach, creating email lists. The communications mix will be refined as we continue to test efficacy and response rates.  As our collection broadens, we will be able to engage more through editorial content on our social media channels and email targeting. At later stages, our targeting can broaden to the wider Gaelic interest groups, researchers and academia. 3. training two participants in collecting oral history with the Oral History Society This will improve the quality of material, and ensure robust processes are in place to make material accessible to the community, as well as wider community of researchers and academics. We are keenly aware that we are quickly losing those with the deep relationship with the land and customs of our district, and that we need urgent action to make this knowledge available to future generations.  We will engage the younger members of our community to take part in the collection, through collecting family memories and working with the interviewers.