LGBTQ+ community in Caithness urged to share their stories at Nucleus
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Tales of LGBTQ+ people in Caithness are being sought for a new collaborative project as part of Scotland's Year of Stories.
Eden Court Highlands and High Life Highland’s Highland Archive Service are behind the intergenerational legacy project which seeks to gather and permanently archive stories of the LGBTQ+ community in the Highlands.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community in Caithness and north Sutherland are invited to a drop-in session taking place at Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives next month.
People will be asked to contribute to a creative artwork, record their thoughts and stories, and help to shape a zine and an exhibition which will tour through the Highlands later in the year.
Our Story: Closing the queer history gap in the Highlands will also include drop-in sessions in Inverness, Fort William and Skye.
Lorna Steele-McGinn, High Life Highland’s community engagement officer, said: “We are really looking for anyone who views themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ community in the Highlands to get in touch. Even if they are not able to come along to these sessions but want their stories to be included in the project, or have anything to add to the archive being collected, then they should feel free to contact us through our social media pages or by email on archives@highlifehighland.com. We’d be delighted to hear from them.”
The session at Nucleus takes place on Friday, September 2, from 11am to 3pm. The drop-in at Skye is at the same time on August 26 at the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, Portree, in Fort William at the Lochaber Archive Centre on September 9 and in Inverness's Highland Archive Centre on September 16.
The project is funded by VisitScotland, the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Museums Galleries Scotland.
Lucy McGlennon, Eden Court’s head of engagement, said: “We are delighted to be a partner in this project and hope it will help inform future generations of the diversity that exists in the Highlands.
"We’d really love people to get involved and assist us in increasing the diverse materials and information held in the Highland Archive Service’s collections and to ensure that the stories of LGBTQ+ people in the Highlands are recorded and recognised when people look back in years to come.”
