An t-Òran Fada : The Yonder Cruin : Hirgân : Guhkes Lávvla
An international creative residency exploring the global and cross-cultural intersections of land, music and ancestry.
We are so excited to be hosting The Long Song at Knockengorroch this May. This project brings together indigenous Māori musicians from Aotearoa (NZ), Sámi artists from Norway, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scots artists to explore commonalities and differences, and stories told through generations, sung across time and space
Māori musicians Huia Hamon and Rob Thorne will travel from Aotearoa to Scotland for the first time. They will be accompanied by Aotearoan cultural leaders from the Matariki Cultural Foundation and Creative Northland.
Norwegian Sámi artists Torgeir Vassvik and Kari Heimen, Scottish Gaelic singer Deirdre Graham, Scots singer Kirsty Law, and Welsh singer Eve Goodman will join the Aotearoans on the land at Knockengorroch farm. The artists will gather together for a residency the week before, then take part in Knockengorroch Festival 2025.
The Long Song artists will co-design and perform an opening ceremony to honour the land and kick start Knockengorroch Festival on Thursday 22 May. Performances will take place during the festival, and festival goers will be able to take part in Sámi joiking, Māori poi and instrumentation, Gaelic, Scots and Welsh singing workshops from the artists.
The Long Song at Knockengorroch is the continuation of the project begun in March 2024 when Knockengorroch and Trac Cymru were invited to Aotearoa (New Zealand) by the Matariki Cultural Foundation to join other indigenous and international delegates for a conversation about a global indigenous music platform.
Landing in Wales in early May 2025, the Aotearoan delegation will attend music industry event FOCUS Wales in Wrexham and the Great Escape festival in Brighton before travelling up to Knockengorroch in South West Scotland.
The The Long Song* project in the UK has been made possible thanks to funding from the British Council Connections Through Culture grant. The residency, collaboration and discussions on the land at Knockengorroch have been funded by Creative Scotland.
