Calum MacKinnon Ferguson

Changing Ideas Award
EILEAN MÒR AIG AON DUINE IS SINNE GUN FHEANNAG
A BIG ISLAND FOR ONE PERSON AND US WITHOUT A FEANNAG (LAZY BED)
Words borrowed from Iagan MacDhùghail, who was the last living Vatersay Raider, recorded in interview by Lisa Storey. Iagan re-tells the story of the Raiders first hand and their time in court and then prison in Edinburgh followed by their defiant return to Vatersay.
The recording is available on Tobar an Dualchais:
https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/78917?l=en
Track ID: 78917
"FACLAN IAGAN" is part of Ferguson’s ongoing body of work celebrating the Vatersay Raiders, re-visiting themes of land reform, ownership, colonialism, Gàidhlig culture, the suppression of the Gael and its impact on our relationships with place.
The Vatersay Raiders, (including Ferguson’s great-great grandfather Donnchadh Antanaidh Caimbeul) were imprisoned in 1908 for occupying the Isle of Vatersay, land which their ancestors where forcibly evicted from, by tyrannical landlords. Landless people seeking a life outside deprivation, taken to court by Lady Gordon Cathcart one of the wealthiest landowners in Scotland. The ten imprisoned Raiders were later released after public outcry and the island later purchased by the Government to be divided into crofts for the Raiders and their families, a pivotal moment in Scottish land reform.
The Feannag: the traditional method by which crops and in particular potatoes where cultivated in the Outer Hebrides. Potatoes were crucial to the survival of cottars who otherwise relied on fishing which was often undependable, effected by weather and sea conditions.
The subsequent raids on Vatersay were driven out of necessity for food sovereignty and a means to produce sufficient food to feed themselves throughout the year.