Trauma and the Scottish Gàidhealtachd – Contemporary artistic responses to the Highland Clearances

Challenging Legacies in Post-Colonial and Post-Socialist Notions of Place

Abstract

The historical event known as “The Highland Clearances” is a term broadly used to describe the forced evictions of Scottish crofters and their families. Whether through dispossession, or through migration due to economic circumstances, the changes undergone between 1750–1860 in the Gàidhealtachd (Gaeldom) have been represented in visual culture by a number of artists, with scholarship largely focused on painters of the Victorian period such as Thomas Faed RSA and John Watson Nicol. This paper seeks to place an emphasis on the efforts made in the last few decades by those in traditional Gàidhealtachd areas to reassess this legacy. As we approach the 40th anniversary of the landmark exhibition and publication As an Fhearann (From the Land), this paper focuses in particular on the work of An Lanntair Arts Centre in Stornoway, and the practice of an artist descended from an evicted family, Will Maclean RSA. The dif ficult issue of victimhood and the Gàidhealtachd, its relation to post-colonial narratives, and the changing nature of discourse around the Clearances are also discussed.