Here be Dragons.

Seo nathair-sgiatach

Here be Dragons

Who am I?

How to know the unknowable?

Each stone is my story, my body.

But it’s not me.

My DNA connects me to this place – to Orkney. I’m drawn here.

But not there.

Here are my mother’s roots.

But I’ve grown into something else. Branches written deep. Leaves blowing far.

Who am I? Chi sono?

This is what I am.

Her være dragger.

Here be dragons.

Who am I?

Why do we feel compelled to search and trace our family roots? When we find them, these names are just that, names, and in many occasions not linked to the immediacy of our current lives. But they do root us in history. They make us feel connected to something, however obscure and seemingly aimless.

Connected to everything, where if you go back far enough, you can see we are related to everyone. Deep. We all have shared blood in our veins. Are we family?

I am exploring my family on my mother’s side. We have a mix of Scottish, Orkney and Irish. I am most drawn to the remotest – in distance and history.

I grew up believing I was Italian/Irish. Not uncommon in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It was as an adult – after I interviewed my grandmother Henrietta Walker - I realized she was Scottish. For generations. She married William Costie, who we believed was Irish. She married outside her culture and faith. She converted to Catholicism. She let her children grow up as Irish Catholic and buried her Scottish Presbyterian self. She became a Costie.

Later – through a strange coincidence – a woman, Isla, wrote a letter to the Liberty Street Costies in Hamilton. She found us. We found out we were Orcadian. Not Irish, not Scottish.

Ancestrally, Orcadians have lived on Orkney since the Mesozoic era. They created an incredible culture during the Neolithic era. I am drawn to this, to the pre-Pict, to the Neolithic and to the Mesozoic Doggerland.

Everything was built of stone and that is why much of it remains.

My great-great grandfather was from Orkney and a stone mason. He probably built many of the slate roofs in our city.

This is what I am.

2016

Seo nathair- sgiatach

SHOW-EE NA-HAIR SKI-AH-HACH