In 2021 I relocated to the Highlands to unpack my ancestry and its relation to my current privilege. My approach looked at my own family journey which started with my Great Grandfather’s transition from Dornoch ploughman to cavalry trooper guarding the prison camps of the second Boer War and beyond. By taking a personal line through some of the most defining moments of our national military identity I sought to present a more easily fathomable entry point to complex political and cultural issues.
The British collective consciousness is still enthralled by the hagiography and supremacy of the Scottish warrior. I researched my connection to a subaltern Highlands, which, following its colonisation by the Presbyterian-Dutch in the 17th Century, joined the race for global violence and horror. The confederate flag flies the cross of St Andrew. The (post) colonial dominant must research his own roots as a violently overpromoted subaltern in order to humbly suggest the transformation of the (post) colonial world to a new equity.
As a new proposal for Scottish independence entered and then promptly left the public sphere, I felt there was more to do than simply identifying the statues and street names that linked Scotland to British colonialism. I wanted to use this disruption as an opportunity to propose a new social imaginary by undertaking a shared examination of our collective cultural memory.
This research strand was featured as part of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities research festival. The full presentation can be found at the button below.
