Features / Am I an incomer?
THE RESULTS of a nine month research project about the many folk from foreign shores who have made Shetland their home have been made public last week.
Migration is not a new issue for Shetland – over the last few centuries thousands of islanders left in search for a new home overseas, while more recently many more arrived to set up home in the isles.
Today Shetland is a surprisingly diverse and cosmopolitan place with people from all corners of the globe contributing to a vibrant island community.
After being referred to as an “incomer”, Walls-based poet and writer Raman Mundair embarked on a creative journey to explore the meaning of the word and hear stories from the many foreign nationals who now call Shetland their home.
“Do I see myself as an incomer?” she asked.
“It raised more questions than it resolved. I thought, ‘I don’t relate to this; let me look into this’. And then, of course, I recognised that it is a loaded term.
“I know on some levels [‘incomer’] is used to describe and to make a differentiation between someone who has come here and someone who was born here, but then I thought about the people who have been incomers and had children – are their children still incomers?
“At what point do you stop being an incomer?”
Mundair sought answers other “incomers”, like Radina from Bulgaria, Akshay from India, Milroy from Sri Lanka, Misa from the Czech Republic, Zusanna from Poland along with dozens more.
Their stories and thoughts form part of a small exhibition that opened last Wednesday in the museum’s foyer just outside Hay’s Dock Café Restaurant.
They will also be stored in the archives and are now accessible via webpages hosted by the Shetland Amenity Trust at www.shetlandamenity.org/incoming-map
A small book, Incoming – Some Shetland Voices, with contributions from archivist Brian Smith, museum curator Ian Tait, as well as incomers Rosa Steppanova and Mundair herself was launched on the same day, and is available at the exhibition space.
Mundair said: “On the whole people have had very positive experiences, but married with that there are also sacrifices.
“A lot of people spoke very beautifully and poetically about Shetland on record, but off record would present another side of their experience, a side that perhaps didn’t marry what they just told me, and that would be because they invested in being here, this is their home and some have lived here longer than anywhere else.
“I found it was quite a layered conversation that I have had with people and I was able to build up some really lovely relationships with folk.”
Listen here to Raman Mundair speaking about her project:
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Born in Ludhiana, India, Mundair moved with her parents to London at the age of five and first came to Shetland in 2002 when she was the isles’ writer in residence for a year.
Based at the Shetland Archives, the Incoming project was made possible through a Leverhulme Trust artist in residence grant.
The exhibition in the Shetland Museum and Archives runs until 20 July.
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