Highland Deaf Culture - Our Memories and Language - Heritage Project
In October 2008, the Highland Deaf Communication Project was awarded just under £49,954 by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the cost of a £65,000 project, “Highland Deaf Culture – Our Memories and Language”, to record the memories and finger-spelling of older Deaf people in Highland.   more >>> PDF | MS Word

Presenting the Past: My Firsts
Scottish Deaf Heritage Project

Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD) was awarded a grant of £47,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to preserve Scottish deaf people’s heritage by capturing memories on film, future generations of d/Deaf and hearing people will be able to benefit.

We will use this funding to:

1. Record the unique heritage for future generations – deaf and hearing – especially those with deaf parents or grandparents;
2. Capture Deaf people’s memories on camera in their native BSL and reproduce it on DVD, providing a valuable and much needed resource for younger Deaf people to learn about their own culture and history;
3. Provide teaching materials for Deaf Studies courses in schools and colleges so students can learn from these films directly about Deaf Culture, Heritage and Language
4. Preserve older deaf people’s signs on film.  As the language changes and develops these old signs are in danger of being lost forever.

With this funding SCoD will produce a DVD accessible to all through BSL, captions and voiceover so that younger and future generations can learn about their own heritage.  Captured forever will be Deaf people’s memories of their firsts: at school, on apprenticeships and at showing how people coped in an age without the benefits of modern deaf-friendly technology such as mobile phones, visual alarms and email – very much taken for granted these days. For the first time, Deaf children in Scotland will be able to learn about their own heritage and cultural history directly in their own language.

In January and February 2010, Lilian Lawson, SCoD Director has planned a series of visits to deaf clubs in different parts of Scotland to talk to local deaf people about this project and invite them to sign up for filming which will take place in Spring and Summer 2010. There will be a training day on Saturday 6th March 2010 for deaf people to learn how to interview other deaf people in front of camera. This training day is organised by the Scottish Oral History Centre.

For more details about this project, please contact Lilian Lawson, SCoD Director at this address: lilian@scod.org.uk and also visit the SCoD website: www.scod.org.uk/news

Deaf History Scotland

On Saturday 31st October 2009, thirty deaf and hearing people came to Donaldson’s in Linlithgow for Deaf History Scotland’s first Annual General Meeting.  At the AGM, after receiving the annual report and accounts, members had a long discussion on whether there should be an additional membership category for those people who were unemployed but interested in Deaf History.  It was agreed that there should be one for “unwaged” members and they will pay an annual membership fee of £10.  There was the election of seven Executive Committee members and they are:
Pam Bruce (Dundee), Enrique Canton (East Kilbride), Ian Carmichael (Falkirk), Lilian Lawson (Glasgow), Harold Nicolson (Edinburgh), Michael Sabell (Stonehaven) and Dr Ronnie Scott (Glasgow).  At the end of the AGM, members gave suggestions for DHS to do in 2010 and they included an exhibition in Edinburgh and visiting local libraries to look at microfiches for deaf related events.

After the AGM, there was an Extraordinary General Meeting to approve a few alterations to the DHS Constitution as recommended by the Office of Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) before DHS could register as a charity. The alterations were unanimously approved by DHS members.

Margaret Aitken chaired the AGM and EGM. As she did not stand for re-election to the Executive Committee, her place was filled by Ian Carmichael.  The DHS Executive Committee will elect three new officers: Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer at a next meeting on 19th November 2009.

Before lunch, Jill Bradshaw gave an impromptu talk entitled “Every picture tells a story” and it was very well received. Jill stepped in when two invited speakers pulled out.
After lunch, there were two workshops; “How to preserve deaf archives” led by John A Hay MBE and “How to use the Internet for family and deaf history research” – Dr Ronnie Scott.  Members found both workshops enlightening and asked both speakers a lot of questions.
Members were invited to join a tour of the school building and this pleased many of them because they were former pupils of Donaldson’s and they had not been to this new school since Donaldson’s moved from Edinburgh to Linlithgow in January 2008.

Participants watching presentations		Qustions from the floor
John Hay giving a presentation		Qustions from the floor
Ronnie Scott giving a presentation		Questions from the floor

Ronnie Scott, a historian and a member of the Executive Committee of DHS, is leading three classes that might be of interest to members. When booking, please tell the organisers if you require BSL-English interpreters.

Researching your local history – from 7 October 2009 (evenings)
Ronnie Scott BA MPhil PhD Do you have a favourite building, place or organisation you'd like to know more about? Interested in researching the history of your house or street? Come and be guided through the process of researching local history, and pick up some helpful hints on presenting your results. The course introduces a wide variety of sources, including official records, maps, photographs, censuses, directories and newspapers.

Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Glasgow.
Course GC030.
Wednesdays from 7 October 2009, from 7pm to 9pm, 10 meetings, fee £75.
Booking information: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/adulteducation/courses/enrolment.html

This is Your Life!: Part 1 – from 5 October 2009 (mornings)
Ronnie Scott BA MPhil PhD You have had an interesting life, and you have always fancied writing about it. This class will equip you with the ways and means to think about your life and the best way of recording it for your family and friends, for future generations, or just for your own amusement. In part one, we will look at finding the time to write, gathering your materials, putting your life events in their historical and social context, planning your approach and structuring your story, and thinking about how your readers might react to your writing. We will also look at how other people have written about their lives. Part 2 will run from 11 January 2010.

Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Strathclyde. Course D166.
Mondays from 5 October 2009, from 9.45am to 11.45am, 10 meetings, fee
£76 (ILA200 eligible).
Booking information: http://www.strath.ac.uk/cll/info/enrolment/

Internet history research – 5 December 2009
Ronnie Scott BA MPhil PhD This course demonstrates how to use the internet for researching local, national and family history. It will equip students with the abilities and the resources to identify reliable sources of information, to find and use on-line catalogues and databases and to collate and store their research findings. It is ideal for those with a specific project as well as people who want to get more out of the internet.

Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Glasgow.
Course Y031.
Saturday 5 December 2009, from 10am to 4pm, 1 meeting, £15.00.
Booking information: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/adulteducation/courses/enrolment.html