WHERE now for culture? My culture. OK, yours too – following on from the Sunday National article “McCarthyism 2.0”, the definition of “culture” is contentious to say the least. I mean, tell a dedicated Scottish football fan that her love of the game, following her team, buying the kit, isn’t part of her “culture” and you’ll probably have a rammy on your hands. So take your pick from all or some of “values, beliefs, norms, symbols, language and rituals”.
And then we in our groups, communities, countries pick ‘n’ choose and identify, even claim, certain components as “our” culture. That “culture” then becomes part of the structures within which we live and operate. Move away and you might lose some aspects of your “culture”. But if a society is open and willing, there’s acknowledgement that folks can arrive somewhere, settle, adapt, merge into and enhance their new environment with its specific “cultural norms” whilst retaining and sharing the cultural heritage they bring with them.
READ MORE: Brexit may be 'terminal' for UK music industry, RAM principal warns
Culture needs both defending and sustaining if it is to survive, thrive and develop. I mean there were differing forms of response and levels of anger when Scotland’s current victories in curling were ignored by the state broadcaster. It was almost “not again”, snub after snub, after denigration and devaluing of our culture and identity. Move on and we openly see funding weaponised by the government agin artists that don’t dance to their acceptable tune. And that power nurtures fear when you’re dependent on funding streams.
Artist-curator Georgina Porteous had art work from Palestinian, Israeli, and UK artists due to be displayed in an exhibition, The Opening Of The Fragile Pot, at the Moray School of Art gallery in Elgin. With just a week’s notice the event was cancelled by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), with the reasoning from a spokesperson that hosting the exhibition could be seen as “endorsing” a particular viewpoint about the Hamas-Israel war without any balance.
Yes, the UHI is a registered charity, with all the potential constrictions that impact all charities when filling out grant applications. Paying the piper and all that. So where is the impartiality in funding the arts, and if there is a lack of impartiality being replaced with government control and diktat, what to do? The actor Lupita Nyong’o, unforgettable in 10 Years a Slave, hit the mark when she said that “what colonialism does is cause an identity crisis about one’s own culture”.
READ MORE: BBC Scotland announces major changes to current affairs content
British India (that was the name pre-independence) in the 1920s onwards saw the introduction of more draconian legislation that effectively censored the burgeoning new mass media art form, Bollywood. The British knew the danger hitting the screens in cities, towns and villages. The language of the masses, tales and characters openly recreating past glories and heroes reminding everyone of their history and culture. Or worse, fiction of its time that showed the weak, poor, downtrodden suffering under a ruling class, often undefined “foreign”, finding a 90-minute hero who looked like them, spoke like them, worked with them so that change was possible.
Maybe it’s time then for agitprop, songs, literature, whatever’s your culture, mine, ours, to open up, to create an atmosphere of talking, seeing, hearing independence. Let’s not leave it to the entrenched politicians, doom and gloom. Let’s make that cultural space a normal, everyday expression of the future state of independence. I wept over Sunday’s Long Letter from Hafid Boutaleb about the future for Palestine ten years hence.
Lesley Riddoch closes Thrive: The Freedom to Flourish with a view from the Forth Bridge ten years after indy. It’s time.
Selma Rahman
Edinburgh
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel