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THE CELTIC CONNECTION • MAY 1995
WRITE-95
the conference for digital content creators
Writers' Retreat on Interactive Technology & Equipment
June 14-17,1995, Granville Island Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Keynote Address: Paul Saffo,
Writing in an Age of Electronic Incunabula
Special Guest: Ray Bradbury, 1001 Ways to Solve the Future
W.R.I.T.E. is a leading conference for writers, developers and publishers focusing on the creation of new media products and services for the digital publishing industry.
Before May 15, 1995: $360 - After May 15, 1995: S425.
Pre-conference Seminar.
Demystifying Interactive Media
S65 for conference delegates ($125 for non-delegates)
Post-conference Workshop: Internet Publishing $595 for conference delegates ($795 for non-delegates)
t: (604) 822-1432 F: (604) 822-1499 E: write@cce.ubc.ca http://www.cstudies.ubc.ca
UBC
Hosted by The University of British Columbia Continuing Studies in association with Centre for Image & Sound Research, Emily Carr Institute of An & Design International Interactive Communications Society
Join us for tea at:
Tea Room and Gift Shoppe
Pacific View • 15223 Pacific Avenue White Rock, B.C. • (604) 541-9010
• Morning Tea Break • Light Luncheons • • Full Service Afternoon Tea •
— HIGHER SERVICE
Arrange your transport needs from a family-owned company that care and who offer competitive rates!
Select the vehicle of your choice to leisurely explore the unparalleled beauty and splendour of Scotland Hiring from MELVILLE'S SELF-DRIVE offers you the flexibility of choice, whether you need a sub-compact or station wagon, standard shift or automatic. We have a wide range of vehicles to suit your needs. We also provide mini-buses in various sizes, e.g. 9.12 or 15 seaters.
Should you wish, we also provide a chauffeur-drive service for parties such as golfers, fishermen or simply interested travellers.
Arriving at Glasgow airport, we have an office in the Forte Creste Hotel, opposite the terminal building and our Edinburgh office is located only 5 minutes from Edinburgh Castle, opposite Haymarket Rail Station. We also have office in the following Scottish centres: East Kilbride, Irvine and Kilmarnock To make your reservation, please contact: WILLIAM ANDERSON
INTERNATIONAL , MARKETING MANAGER TEL: 011-44-1337-5333 fax: 011-44-1337-5666
Regaling the World with Ancient Scottish Tales
By TONY MONTAGUE
Duncan Williamson knows literally thousands of stories, songs, ballads and riddles. At the recent Storytelling Festival in Vancouver and at a performance the Scottish Cultural Centre, he delighted audiences with his incomparable knowledge of the oral tradition and his great personal charm.
Born in a tent in 1928, Duncan is proud of his heritage as one of Scotland's "travelling people" (more generally known as tinkers).
"I was doing a session in the U.S. one time and a lady asked me, 'Does it bother you, Mr. Williamson, to have been born in a tent?' I said, 'My dear, Jesus Christ was born in a stable; d'ye think he'd have been a better person if he'd been born in the Savoy Hotel in London?'"
Duncan is one of 16 children who travelled all over the Western Highlands with their parents — on foot. "We crossed so many passes to get to the farms way up in the hills, that a horse, or anything with wheels, was no good. Walking was the shortest way."
All the children shared in the different tasks — carrying the bundles, pitching the tent, fetching the water and firewood.
But their nomadic existence was limited to the summer months, as Jock Williamson was determined that his sons and daughters should receive the school education he never had.
It was while at school, in the village of Furnace, in Argyll, that Duncan first came to realize his extraordinary ability as a storyteller.
• ".One day, the teacher asked me, 'would you like to take over the littlest ones?' I took them into a small room and told them a story. I was just seven years old myself. You know, it was so quiet in that room that the teacher peeped in and wondered what was going on."
Duncan has picked up the art quite naturally. Storytelling is an essential part of life for travellers. "Imagine this — your' parents can't read, you don't have any books anyway, and on the' long winter evenings, you've got several kids who are going to start fighting unless you give them something to pass the time.
"That's when stories were told — and on summer evenings
DUNCAN WILLIAMSON
round the campfires. Stories were the most important part of the life. You worked hard because you knew there was a storyteller coming at night."
Their stories were not simply told for entertainment. "There were always stories for teaching and learning. Take the Jack Tales. If Jack has a problem, he solved it; and you had to solve your own problems along the way, same as him."
And stories had another function, "A story was a gift to remember the teller by, when he or
she was gone. My grandmother was a great storyteller," Duncan recalls. "Sixty years later, if I tell a story told to me by her, I can still see her sitting by the fire, putting a little tobacco in her pipe.
"When I left home at 13 years old, I worked with farmers and shepherds and woodcutters." I was interested if they had a story to tell." Many of these tales were in Gaelic — which Duncan learned to speak fluently, along with two varieties of Cant (or Shelta, the language of the travelling people), and Highland and Lowland Scots.
For 37 years, Duncan was a horse dealer. "Not a stealer — a dealer," he says with a laugh. "I married when I was 21 but my wife died young. I took my family with me everywhere — from Inverness to Galloway. We didn't walk though, I had a pony and a nice cart and harness.
"I did a lot of pearl fishing in the summer and we helped the farmers out at harvest. We also did'a lot of things attached to the travelling trade — making baskets and besoms and scrubbers for the porridge pots. And, we caught shellfish on the beaches. We always managed to make a living. If one thing didn't work, something else turned up."
In 1975, Duncan met his second wife, Linda — an American academic studying traditional music in Scotland. "I was singing old ballads around the folk clubs at the time. I wasn't doing much storytelling."
With Linda's encouragement, Duncan visited the School of Scottish Studies and his prodigious repertoire of stories was duly revealed and began to be transcribed and published.
Duncan remarrted and settled down with Linda—well, almost. He is now in great demand as an author and professional storyteller, travelling the length and breadth of Britain and^beyond.
Stories and storytelling are everything for Duncan — the hope for the future of his people and their culture and the cherished ' memory of a shared past.
"I remember my brother and I and a few friends sitting around by a fire all night, listening to an old man tell us stories about his experiences in the war. If I could, I'd go back to hear him again — only this time, I'd stay up even longer!"
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Steak & Kidney Pies, Scotch Pies, Black Pudding, Haggis, Biscuits, Groceries from Britain All your favourite sweets plus a new range of South African products
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