Forms of traditional ecological knowledge that have been erected since antiquity in Scotland are ripe for re-imagining. Col Gordon explores ways in which a renewed application of these methods can help transition to sustainable, locally-appropriate forms of agriculture in the post fossil-fuel era.
If there’s money going into purchasing large areas of land to rewild, then we need to ask: what does rewilding look like? Crofting and rewilding are often pitted against each other in a narrative that suggests they are incompatible. But rather than opposing rewilding on the grounds that it is not compatible with the practices that were imposed on the Gàidhealtachd through colonial mechanisms, we should instead start to advocate for embedding these pre-clearance practices into the rewilding agenda and demanding that they are included, considered, and acted upon by people.
It is the very same people who destroyed the Indigenous cultures and land practices who are now calling for a return to the landscape they destroyed. But “Is treasa tuath na tighearna” (The people are mightier than a lord). We need to become the Tuath once more and demand that if this happens it does so in conjunction with a return to ‘indigenous’ land uses, in a relevant and reinvigorated way for today. These ideas need to be invoked now and attempts at living them need to be made. Over the centuries Gaels were domesticated into the state and maybe now is the time for the Tuath to be rewilded.