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The Role of National Days and Festivals in Cultural Advocacy and in Re-conceptualising National Identity

Professor Gayle McPhersonUniversity of the West of Scotland

12th Session of the European Cultural Parliament, September, 2013

Challenge: why is there not a UK “national day”?

In Europe. National days and festivals – concepts,

expressions and cultures Cultural advocacy – contexts, expressions and

cultures National identity – re-conceptualising; re-

contextualising; Some questions for policy makers, cultural

leaders, civic leaders, festival ‘owners’, democratically elected representatives; citizens of EuropeA few challenges and contexts throughout

Overview

Scotland – “official” national day is 30 November

One single day to celebrate and promote a national identity?

A single identifiable nation? An obvious identity to which all of a nation can

subscribe in a single context or on a single day? More than one day to celebrate and promote

national identities? Multiple identities within a nation Opportunities for free expression of identity on

several contexts / days A single, universal (paid?) holiday observed,

shared and celebrated by the entirety of a nation?

A National Day or National Days

Some possible days FOR the nation of Scotland:

St Andrew’s Day (30 November) Robert Burns’ Birth Day (25 January) Declaration of Arbroath (6 April) Tartan Day ( 6th April) Hogmanay (1 January) Vote for / against independence from UK

(18 September, 2014)Identities, expressions exclusions and diaspora

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Politics? Culture?

Momentous events – political; cultural; technological

Judao-Christian Calendar – largely “patron saints” days

Birth of a “significant” figure in a nation’s formation or expression

An opportunity to showcase a nation’s economic outputs and activities – particularly in export markets

Formal involvement of the state vs informal, carnivalesque of the “people”

National Days and Festivals

Context: Bastille Day - state, power and identity

Present celebrations (looking to the future) or past victories

Some might argue they are markers of conflict and contestation

Are these events reflecting who we are to ourselves or who we are to others – what is the image that is protrayed and is that what we want

Issues and Challenges

Context: Hogmanay, spectacle and whose identity?

Recognitions of when and how we became who we are – all of us or some of us?

Expressions of who we are (and who we are not?) What do we stand for – as a “people”; as a “nation”? How do we express that? Who decides what the “official version’ is and how it

is to be expressed? How can individual citizens express their identities in

a challenging environment and / or a globalising tendency?

Is the national day a message to us, to others within our boundaries whom we may not regard as “us”; to the outside world?

Cultural Identity via Festivity

Context: national days – unity, separation, re-birth

One national day or many days for the nation’s many populations?

A single cultural identity or pluralistic identities among, and within, citizens

Reconciling difference; addressing demonisation of the ‘other’

Taking ownership through forms of cultural advocacy via citizens, communities, civic leadership, education and art.

Issues and Challenges

Context: Cultural democracy/democratisation of culture

Empowering citizens to be advocates for the identities of a nation

To be part of the policy making process Promoting cultural diversity through cultural

democracy Encourage local change makers across

Europe The role of the European Cultural Foundation The ECP Youth Programme Do we want a cultural policy for Europe or

policies for culture?

Cultural Advocacy

How can every citizen be given the capacity and the potential to be a cultural advocate?

Advocacy empowers people to engage in debate and influence policy but not without problems of trans border differences

Are competing agendi given equal weight?

Are there always winners and losers? What is the role of the ECP in National

Identity?

Issues and Challenges

Auld Lang Syne is a marker for friendship throughout the Globe – could Scotland lead the way!

Context: Scotland

We need to celebrate diversity and difference as part of our shared open borders, whilst retaining our cultural heritage.

Can we have a European National Festival rather than a day– could this be Hogmanay – a shared festival, on one day, across many European countries already, could the UK start with this?

Or is it better to have multiple festivals as exemplars of our diverse cultural offerings

This meeting of the ECP could harness a network of ideas to create a European National Day that embraces culture, tolerance, friendship and celebration

National Identity needs to celebrate what we are rather than what we’re not!

Concluding Thoughts

Single national days or multiple national festivals? Internally facing or externally transmitting? Free expression of identities or staged events

asserting national conformity? Reproducing differences or acknowledging difference? Cultural advocacy or cultural suspicion? Can a nation’s cultural expressions through festivities

be “owned” or are they organic? Who bears the cost and who receives the benefits? In a globalising world, what role can any expression of

national identity have if it is confined to single moments of celebration?

Where shall we find our cultural advocates?

Issues and Challenges