Mairi McFadyen

This coming up next week in Tomatin - a celebration to launch the publication and podcast documenting work with Raghnaid Sandilands for the Findhorn Watershed Initiative. The hope behind our work is to highlight the potential role of culture and creativity in forging new connections of care and stewardship, and perhaps to begin to help nurture and restore connection to the river Findhorn, Uisge Èirinn in Gaelic.

Join us to help celebrate the launch of Uisge Èireann | River Findhorn: place names, music, song and story from the upper catchment - a publication and podcast documenting the body of research collated and curated by Human Ecology Researchers in Residence and .mcfadyen.

📅 Thursday 13 March, 6:30-8:30pm
📍 cafe, Tomatin
🎵 Live music from and friends
🎫 FREE for all to attend

The publication traces the course of the river from where it rises high in the hills of the Monadh Liath and down through Srath Èirinn (Strathdearn) to where the river’s flow is reigned at Na Srianabh (the Bridles), known locally as The Streens - setting out some of the rich social and ecological history to be found in local place names, poetry, story and song.

🔗 findhornwatershed.com/whats-on/uisge-eireann
📧 [email protected]

Just a wee post to let you know that I’ll be leaving Facebook - March will be my last month. I've written about my reasons why in this essay - inspired by a wee yellow thing with feathers!

If you like my ramblings, you can subscribe to my Substack, which will be a new home for my writing, and maybe even a podcast. This is will be free to subscribe to, but you can support me if you like - that would make a huge difference! 🙏

I’ll also be sharing occasional updates about my work and projects through a newsletter on my personal website. You can sign up here if you like: https://www.mairimcfadyen.scot/newsletter

You can also find me on Bluesky 🦋

I hope we stay in touch 💛
https://mairimcfadyen.substack.com/p/call-of-the-goldfinch

The Call of the Goldfinch on reclaiming attention in a world of distraction

After leaving twitter yonks ago I've tentatively started a Bluesky account - found a few friends so far, if you fancy connecting over there I'm at .bsky.social

Mairi McFadyen (@mmcfadyen.bsky.social) imagining and building more hopeful futures www.mairimcfadyen.scot

Unfortunately due to the continued snow in the Boat of Garten area and the forecast of a named storm on Saturday, the difficult decision has been made to move this event online.

We hope that the silver lining in this situation may be that more people can join to hear the discussion.

The event link will be circulated later today to those who registered via Eventbrite. Please feel free to share it with anyone you feel might be interested in joining. If you would like me to send you details on how to join, please send me a private message.

https://fb.me/e/GykmK1Eef

TOMORROW (Sat)! This event will now be ONLINE due to weather conditions - if you'd like to attend, please DM for the meeting link.

🗓️ Sat 23 November, online
⏰ 3-5.30pm Discussion (including breaks)
⏰ 5.30-6.15pm - Raffle and digital cèilidh

Join us to explore to explore the connections between land, nature and justice in Palestine and the Highlands. How is biodiversity nurtured in both places, and can Palestine set a global example? How does cultural and ecological restoration take place? How are communities in Palestine ensuring survival of their connections to and knowledge of land and nature, in the face of occupation and oppression?

We are privileged to welcome Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability and Alastair McIntosh (Soil & Soul etc) for an afternoon all about land and community, facilitated by Mairi McFadyen .

We are also delighted to have contributions from Robbie Synge, Rhona Ramsay and Cairngorms Crofters & Farmers Group.

And then a short online cèilidh! Feel free to take a turn... we are thrilled to be joined by musician Will Boyd-Wallis and poet Cáit O'Neill McCullagh amongst others...

👉 The event will raise funds for Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, online donations will be accepted during the event.

We hope to see you there!

In collaboration with Highland - Palestine.

🌿👀1 month to go! until we open A Fragile Correspondence at the V&A Dundee @vadundee 🎉 A Fragile Correspondence will take visitors on a journey through three Scottish landscapes across the Highlands, Islands and Lowlands, mapping a collection of creative responses by architects, artists and writers. Exploring the relationships between land, architecture and language, the exhibition seeks new ways of working in connection with the land rather than simply upon it. Responding to the theme Laboratory of the Future, this project was selected to represent Scotland at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023, an international exhibition inviting participants to engage with ideas for the environments we live in. Curated by Architecture Fringe, -ism magazine, and /other, this exhibition represented Scotland at the Venice Architecture Biennale, 2023. Featuring work from: Dr Mairi McFadyen @mairi.mcfadyen, Raghnaid Sandilands @raghnaids and Dele Adeyemo @dele_adeyemo exploring Loch Ness Prof Donna Heddle, Aaron McCarthy @_aaronmccarthy_, Becky Little @becky.rebearth and Tom Morton @arcarchitectsscotland and Kristina Enberg @kicki.enberg , Aoife Nolan @aoifeblathnaid , Amy McEwan @amymcewann and Alissar Riachi @alissarriachi of @ism.magazine exploring Orkney And Dr Amanda Thomson @dr_amanda_thomson, Hamshya Rajkumar and Frank McElhinney @tine_collective, and Neil McGuire @nearlymcguire and Andy Summers @mr_andy_summers for the Architecture Fringe @archifringe exploring Ravenscraig. With collaboration with Ann Louise Kieran of North Lanarkshire Council @nlcpeople, and filmmaking with Simon Forsythe @picturethisimon of Lateral North @lateralnorthscot @creativescots @arcdessco @natgalleriessco @scotgov @scotlandvenice 💛🌿 #afragilecorrespondence #architecture

Looking forward to heading to Birnam in a few weeks. I’ll be sharing my reflections on the role of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in nature restoration, drawing from my work in collaboration with Raghnaid Sandilands for the Findhorn Watershed Initiative.

Through the lens of human ecology, our work highlights the reciprocal relationship that past generations had with their surroundings, tracing the human story found in place names, songs, poetry and stories inspired by the landscape. Our shared practice of 'cultural darning and mending' aims to recover and re-enliven these practices before they fade from cultural memory, offering them back to the local community. Culture and creativity play a vital role in fostering new connections of care and deepening our commitment to contemporary environmental stewardship.

🎟️ Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland Conference
📅 Fri 1 Nov | 10am - 5pm
📍 Birnam Arts

Join us as we explore how Scotland's intangible cultural heritage is celebrated and preserved.

🔗 More info and booking: bit.ly/ICHConference2024

Here are a few photos from our Hopeful Futures event in Inverness last weekend. Huge thanks to everyone who came along and participated—whether it was sharing ideas, binding a copy of our Hopeful Highlands Hack, creating a zine, or contributing your offers and needs in our solidarity workshop. It was a real heart-lift!

We’ve created a group to keep the conversations and connections going. It's also a place to share 'offers and needs' as part of beginning to build solidarity networks across the Highlands 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/569777312246645

Special thanks to Alexander Williamson - Photo Video Dronefor the photographs 🙏🙌 https://www.alexander-williamson.com/

Here is the final programme for our Hopeful Futures weekend at Inverness Creative Academy this weekend with details of speakers, sessions and performers ✨

Amy Clarkson from Applecross Community Company, Artemis Pana from Scottish Rural Action, Raghnaid Sandilands, Daniel Cullen and Steven MacKinnon (on tour with the play 'The Chariot, the Flag and the Empty, Empty Houses), Cat Meighan from Circus Artspace and the Highland Zine Bothy, Alice Prentice of Isle of Riso, Hopeful Highland Hack designed by Maddie Lennon, Katharine Barrington and Robin Wolsey from ATLAS Arts, Kidical Mass North, Mari Todd, Max Crawford-Cumming and Zander Millar Todd from Highland Board Brain at Inverness Skate Park, Fairlie Kirkpatrick Baird from the Feminist Bird Club Inverness, Jon Dixon from Incredible Edible Inverness, chef Col Gordon, artist Rachel Skene, the Fèis Rois Ceilidh trail and DJ Meiggidh Fraser!

A reminder too that this event is FREE to the public. Tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/hopefulfutures/1356809
We are keen to make this event as accessible as possible, so if you need help with travel, we can offer a number of small travel bursaries, no questions asked. Email [email protected]

Link to text only version + info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12PnL3nfO4aFssT7MPKwYUliKiNovWfPbj3fd-g-VZW4/edit?usp=sharing