Project meeting filled with stories about how climate change affects heritage
In the beginning of October, all DACCHE partners met in Donegal, Ireland for a couple of intense and fruitful days full of discussions, workshops and climate change stories.
The project’s Irish partner Donegal County Museum had made big efforts to put together an interesting and full itinerary for our meeting. Museum director Judith Mc Carthy together with her crew made sure that all participants got to see some of the results of the Irish case study which is underway.
One day was devoted to a field trip to Mc Swyne’s Castle, one of the sites where Donegal County Museum is working closely together with the local community through the Dunkineely Community Ltd to record the effects of climate change on the site. The site is a ruin of a 15th century castle, located on a cliff right beside the ocean at St. John’s Point.
At the field visit, we got to hear from archaeologists from The Discovery Programme who have been doing extensive work along the coast of Donegal to make inventory of the sites which may be endangered by coastal erosion and rising sea levels, as part of their own projects. Representatives from the Dunkineely Community Ltd were also present telling about the history of the site.
The work done through the DACCHE project along with efforts from other organisations have made it clear that it is inevitable that the castle will fall into the sea at some point in a not-so-distant future due to coastal erosion.
The work from this point will therefore mainly focus on capturing the history and stories from the site as well as documenting the site through digital means to keep the heritage alive for coming generations. This is also a grieving process for the community, who must deal with the loss of a site which bear many stories and meanings.
Storytelling workshop pilots
During the project meeting, two test workshops were also conducted under the lead of Iñaki Escudero, an experienced facilitator and storyteller.
One workshop focused on capturing stories of climate change – local community leaders had a quick introduction on how to facilitate storytelling and make people want to share their stories, and then had the opportunity to practice in a following group storytelling session where the participants shared with each other on topics connected with climate change.
One example of themes was what kind of traditions and ways of life that has changed due to changes in the climate with damper summers and snow free winters. Many locals showed up for the workshop and the atmosphere was open and warm, even though many expressed worries for the effects that climate change already have in their local surroundings.
The other workshop had a slightly different target group – we got to meet the dedicated student group Cli-mates, who meet regularly in their spare time to engage in environment issues and making their school and local surroundings more sustainable.
Together, we made a field trip to Port Ban in Inishoven and got an introduction to the site’s natural and cultural heritage. After the introduction, the students got to make their own youth manifesto on what is needed to protect their heritage and future.
Many good ideas were shared, and we left from Port Ban and Donegal feeling inspired and reassured that the project can make a difference in our local communities – and beyond!
