Library staff and volunteers went on a road trip to Inverness just before Christmas to participate in the Women’s Work in the Highlands conference. This day event, organised in partnership by WEA Scotland, GWL and the Highland Archive Centre, was a chance to explore and celebrate the working lives of Highland women. There were inspirational speakers such as Margaret Bennet who took us through a history of women’s work in song and there was a wealth of beautiful images and fascinating histories from the story of women in the Highlands.
Morag, Nisha and Hannah from the library staff team, Jean, one of our volunteer tour guides, and Nikky and Shauna our artists-in-residence all helped to organise workshops and a talk about the library and it’s move towards becoming the Women’s Library of Scotland. We also had an information stall and showed some silent film footage, courtesy of the Scottish Screen Archive, of working women from the past.
The workshops included a talk about developing a women’s history walk where conference delegates had the chance to literally put Highland women of past and present on the map and an oral history workshop.
It was a busy but hugely enjoyable day – and we made it back just before the snows started! Our involvement in this event forms part of the new National Lifelong Learning programme which is taking the work of the Women’s Library across Scotland.
