Wales No, Cymru Ie

2017 Video, performance and installation

A voyage through Cymru's heritage, 'featuring' Blodeuwedd, Branwen, and Rhiannon from our country's epic Mabinogion. Highlighting pivotal moments in the fight to save our culture, its language and ultimately its very soul.

So, What’s in a name?

The name Wales is an Anglo Saxon word meaning ‘slave/foreigner’. The name Cymru - the original name for Wales means ‘fellow countrymen or brotherhood’. I want to reject the imposed name Wales and rediscover the values associated with the original name Cymru. I wonder how the name Wales may have affected the psyche of the people since the country was colonised by England, albeit subliminally. Most people I asked did not know Wales had this meaning. I wanted to explore how the culture of the Cymru has been oppressed. I think if you make people believe that the way they speak is inadequate, their morality questionable and their way of life inferior, they will believe that the ‘other’ is superior. I think this has been a feature of minority cultures that have been dominated by major cultures globally.

I wanted to investigate what I believe to be pivotal moments throughout the history of Cymru. I began with the Ancient Druids of the Cymric people and The Mabinogion - a rich and ancient storytelling tradition that survives even today. The bible and its translation to Welsh and how it could be the reason the language was saved from annihilation. My own pivotal moment – a Welsh bible, a relic kept when my family spoke Welsh but sadly no longer. The Welsh Not – a roughly made wooden sign that schoolchildren would be made to wear if they were found speaking in their native Cymraeg. The ‘treason of the Blue Books’ – a commission by the English government supposedly about the state of education in Wales in 1847 but instead reported on the immorality of the Welsh and judged them on their English language rather than their native Cymraeg. I looked at the history of speaking out against social injustice and the sense of community – inspired by an Evan Walters painting called 'The Communist', featuring an arm stretched male as the subject. I visited a silent, federation stone, once holding many an orator, laid now on the site of a closed down mine like a large gravestone or a fallen standing stone. I emulated 'The Communist' pose and reclaimed it as my birthright as a working class woman and considered myself as part of a long line of those fighting oppression.

In my video and installation piece I tried to communicate that I reject an imposed culture, a disrespectful name and dominance of any kind. I used objects that symbolise transition, freedom, knowledge and obviously the chains that shackle. Even though I ultimately identify with being a human being, I believe that it is culture that makes us human and should be cherished and fought for. My call to action is to reject the name Wales, reclaim the name Cymru, campaign for the history of Cymru to be taught in all schools and to return Cymraeg as the first language of Cymru.