Remembering Together at Westside coffee mornings

Robbie visited coffee mornings at Barvas Church of Scotland and Grinneabhat in Bragar in early October to introduce Remembering Together and to chat with folk about the project.

Conversations covered experiences of the pandemic, from isolation and loss, to time spent on the machair and communities coming together to look out for one another. One theme that came up was our increased use of technology, with people getting to grips with Zoom and creating Whatsapp groups for villages to stay in touch – some of which are still very active.

Thanks to Rev. Dougie Wolf and Murdo Morrison for hosting the events and to everyone that attended for sharing their input and experiences.

Some ideas for the memorial:

“An immersive, 360 experience with projections telling the stories of local people”

“A showcase of all the amaing local crafts that people have been doing in their homes during lockdown”

“An album that could take us on an emotional journey from sad songs to hopeful ones, celebrating our connection to local places and involving Gaelic psalm singing”

“The artwork should be in a series of locations rather than one place to allow more people to access it”

Some memories that were shared:

“Islanders had stoic attitudes “we just need to get on with it””

“People weren’t able to mourn properly - we couldn’t attend funerals of loved ones”

“We had to adapt constantly to new rules and guidance”