Professor G ayle McPherson University of the West of Scotland

1. The Role of National Days and Festivals in Cultural Advocacy and in Re-conceptualising National Identity Professor Gayle McPherson University of the West of Scotland 12th Session of the European Cultural Parliament, September, 2013

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

3. 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 Europe A few challenges and contexts throughout Overview

4. Scotland – “official” national day is 30 November

5. 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

6. 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 exclusionsand diaspora

7. Politics? Culture? {Economics?

8. 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

9. Context: Bastille Day - state, power and identity

10. 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

11. Context: Hogmanay, spectacle and whose identity?

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. Context: Cultural democracy/democratisation of culture

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. 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