To the Board,
I was very distressed to read of the dismissal of Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie, a director of the Gaelic college over the last seven years, of which you, for one, are a board member. I am very surprised that the other members of the board appear to be difficult to trace in public; a situation that immediately alerts me to vicarious management. In this way, you may or not be singularly honoured as the person to whom I address this personal letter. However, I will assume that its contents will be efficiently communicated to the other members of the board.
Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie represents a very important part of not only an historical re-awakening of years of repression and ignorance of the cultural essence of Cape Breton especially, within Nova Scotia as a whole.
I trust that I need not have to tell someone in your position, of the academic papers that demonstrate the importance of having people knowing who they are, where they came from and, by extrapolation, the generation of a much healthier and balanced society compared with one that does not. You will find shortcomings of this from referral to any academic paper on colonialism.
However, something even more powerfully expedient is represented here – the representation of a powerful link with what the elderly “displaced” Cape Bretoners displayed spontaneously in their own collective memories as “The Old Country.” Neither “Alba” nor “Scotland” were recognized; only “The Old Country” represented the necessary genesis.
Kenneth MacKenzie represents the precious link with this “Old Country” called “Alba” – being one of three sons and a sister of a Scottish Gaelic speaking father who married a local girl, Maureen Rankin, from Mabou.
This re-strengthening of ties acts as a catalyst for learning the native language, Gaelic, once again.
I was fortunate enough to have spent six weeks at this college, at the invitation of Kenneth MacKenzie, during September and early October 2024 and witnessed the cultural and community awakening – where students talked positively of turning the tide of emigration from Cape Breton to the possibilities of creating employment in and remaining in their own communities rather than being sucked into the vortex of unfettered capitalism in Central and Eastern Canada and the USA. The catalyst for this was the discreet nurturing by Kenneth MacKenzie. This, in my culture and Cape Breton culture, is proper education – embodying a vision of community enterprise.
It appears that a clash exists between those who honour monetary wealth in the short term as opposed to those who value progress in the long term in their fragile communities. This appears to be the economic scenario amongst indigenous communities around the world that have been displaced and re-shaped themselves within other indigenous communities like the Mi’kmaq and the displaced Gaels; the former assisting the latter and integrating with them.
At least some of the indigenous people of Cape Breton have expressed their perceptions of what is happening; the golf courses(s) being developed for rich Ontarians and Americans thereby providing a “fast buck” for the business opportunists who appear to have short term views of what is best for “their” community of financiers and their beneficiaries.
What has happened is shameful to those who have a modicum of social and community conscience.
I trust you will rescind the actions taken as well as take responsibility in your position as a board director with your colleagues and redress this, by disciplining this, hopefully, failed despot.
I will be considering relevant media sources in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia.
Ailean Dòmhnullach
Edinburgh, Scotland