How might people come together in the Highlands to commemorate the coronavirus pandemic?
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Ideas on how the coronavirus pandemic could be remembered are being gathered from across the Highlands.
The aim is create a way for people to collectively remember, reflect, heal from, and mark the pandemic.
An artist-led consultation, Highland Memory Space, has suggested ideas such as a memorial, a walking trail and an app but it is inviting the public to give their views.
It is part of the Scottish Government and Greenspace Scotland’s Remembering Together project which has commissioned artists in all 32 local authority areas to work with communities to find ways of honouring the people who died and how the pandemic affected everyone.
It is also about remembering those who have experienced loss and change as well as celebrating the ways in which communities came together during the most difficult times.
Artists Cat Meighan, Sinead Hargan and Hector MacInnes are involved in the Highland part of the project.
Ms Meighan said they already worked with communities including women with experience of sexual or domestic abuse or assault in Inverness, young folk in Cromarty and Caithness, primary school children in Fort William, residential care home residents and staff in Skye and young folk with additional care and learning needs and older adult groups in Caol.
“We have also taken an approach of conversing on a more in-depth way with people with experience of long-Covid and other specific experiences,” she said.
“We are in the middle of our engagement on this project and welcome as many responses as possible – we would encourage anyone in Highland region to get in touch with us.”
She said the project was an opportunity to celebrate the commonalities highlighted by the past three years, and the communities that came together, as well as giving space to be sensitive to the grief and loss that people experienced during this time.
“The Covid pandemic has been a pivotal pause to reconsider our relationship to the places we live, our environment and our connection to a global community,” she added.
They also held a workshop aimed at people in the creative industries, acknowledging that many in the sector either lost their jobs or suffered substantial negative financial and economic impact.
The next phase will be to look at all the responses and come up with proposals to what remembering the pandemic might look like for the people of the Highlands.
More at www.highlandmemory.space or email hmspace@lytharts.org.uk.
