1. What is your Llais y Lle project?
My main objective was to explore the relationship of Dyffryn Nantlle residents with their nationality by looking at the area’s history and landscape and how the Welsh language plays a part. A lot of the inspiration for the project came from Welsh myths and legends, specifically Blodeuwedd, because of the connection with the area and the strong theme of nature within her story.
2. What has happened up to now?
I was keen to develop connections in the community, and by working with Yr Orsaf, we held different activities. These included: walks with ecologist Bethan Mosley, gardening sessions, creative art workshops – with flower pressing, poetry workshops with Grug Muse, bat visit evenings, and yoga sessions with Iogis Bach. The sessions all tried to develop the relationship between language and nature, to think about different perspectives in nature, and about the languages we don’t hear but which exist, for example, how bats communicate with each other.
3. How did the community benefit from the project?
Over 200 people attended the events, including groups from local schools, parents and babies, Welsh language learning groups, elderly people, and local families. The activities were an opportunity to celebrate the Welsh language and bridge the generations.
As part of the project, the Blodair resource was designed to visually celebrate the names of our wild plants in Wales. The purpose of this resource is to offer a helping hand in learning the names of our indigenous wild plants, using playful and visual methods to construct the names. Blodair was inspired by conversations during the project when pondering the question: how can we go about ensuring the prosperity of our wild plants if we don’t have the language to recognize them? Eventually, this resource will be available to the public.
In addition, we are developing a map that locates the area’s legends, including the legends of the Mabinogi, the fairies, and the folklore of the quarrymen. This map will be printed on a banner that will travel around different locations in Dyffryn Nantlle.
Here’s what some had to say:
“The children very much enjoyed. The session was valuable and helped us enrich the teaching of ‘Health and Wellbeing”
“The session helped with my learning Welsh as I had never written anything in Welsh before”.
“I’m delighted that there are healthy activities being offered in the local community.”