What We Have

In the fall of 2006, after I graduated high school I left Nova Scotia and worked at a restaurant in Banff Alberta. In the dining room hung a painting of a prairie land-scape. Golden wheat stretching back and back to a dark wall on the horizon that represented the Rocky Mountains. At least, I can be 90% sure that was what the artist had in mind when she painted it. I say 90 % because when I looked at the painting I didn’t always see golden wheat and mountains. Sometimes, and especially at times when I would be feeling particularly home-sick, I would stare at this painting until the wheat became sand and the mountains turned into the Northumberland Strait. The sea-side environment that I felt the most attached to had been imprinted on my psyche to such a degree that this painting of an Albertan prairie had become my own personal Rorschach test.

 

The beach was a place that I would go to with my family in the summer, the place where I first played in waves that were taller than me, and the place where my friends and I would have bon-fires. That beach is just one aspect of my environment that called on me to come home—and that’s exactly what I did. It’s the very same thing that draws people from all over the world to come visit. I know I feel a lot of pride when I meet people visiting from America, Europe and indeed Alberta, who are here to enjoy “Canada’s ocean play-ground.”

It’s worthwhile to celebrate what we have here in this corner of the world. For example, every Summer Point Michaud beach in Richmond County hosts the annual surf classic—a fun event for people of all ages to come and play in the waves that break along that sandy bit of Cape Breton coastline. Another example, and one which perhaps many more of you are familiar with, is the Celtic Colours International Festival that takes place each October.

“We know what we have here. We cherish it. All of our events show off something that we celebrate here. We don’t put on this event so that tourists can come, we put on this event because this is what we do. This is how we celebrate life. This is how we celebrate culture.”

That quote was taken from a presentation that Dawn Beaton gave at the Conference for Growing a Creative Economy up in Membertou, Sydney last month. Dawn and I caught up after the conference and had a chat. Dawn is the Artistic Director of the Celtic Colours International Festival. She has been involved with the administration of the festival for six years--but a performer since the very first one—and like a lot of the people who I have talked to during my time with the Gaelic Council, Dawn’s introduction to Gaelic culture began at home.

“I’ve been very blessed to have had the family, and more specifically the grandparents that I’ve had. Growing up I would hear my grandparents speak to each other in Gaelic. My first segue into Gaelic culture was learning Gaelic songs and singing in the choir that Margie (Stanley) Beaton had set up when I was in grade 1. She had this little choir and we would meet after school and perform at the Inverness Manor and at some of the parish concerts.”

When Dawn graduated from high school she moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration at St. Francis Xavier University. From there she moved to Halifax where she worked for 3 years with an accounting firm.

“I’m from Mabou, a small village. I got a degree in a bigger town, and then moved up to Halifax for 3 years. It took 3 years in Halifax to kind of say ‘okay this is not my path.” And so I ended up back home. Even a short move to Halifax was enough to give me the perspective to see how special the things that I already had were to me.”

The culture that Dawn grew up with and connects with has been valued highly by men and women from all over the world who travel long distances just to get a taste of it.

“Because of this job I meet a lot of people who come from away. And something I’ve heard a lot from many is that when they cross the Causeway they physically feel different. Something clicks, something changes.”

I asked Dawn how she and her team walk the line between an authentic representation of the culture that we work to preserve and perpetuate, and the almost exploitative staged cultural events that you might experience in a Disney park. Her answer was simple.

“When we’re not authentic, we lose. That has been the thought process for having this event. If the locals don’t go, then why are we doing it? What’s the point? We’ve had that at the core of everything we do. It’s been our mantra.”

The Celtic Colours International Festival is a showcase of what already exists in Cape Breton; a nine-day distillation of something that you can’t quite find anywhere else, and which some of us don’t fully appreciate until we’ve travelled away from it.

Gach Deagh Dùrachd! / Every Good Wish!

Dawn’s favorite word in Gaelic is: Uamhasach/Terribly

“I like the way it rolls of the tongue and you can really get that local accent in there. Folks who have never spoken a word of Gaelic in their life, might speak in a very Gaelic way with the same inflection and tones that this word emulates. So I like the way it reminds me of that.”