Lucinda Whyte Donaldson (she/her)

A hexifoil or six spoked daisy wheel. It is a black outline of the hexifoil on a white background. The daisy wheel has six spokes enclosed in a circle.

The hexifoil is a familiar motif found in Nacken Chaetrie (material culture). I know it's an apotropaic symbol in historical European folk magic. It's meaning among Scottish Travellers seems to be lost now all though it likely had a similar purpose. #hexifoil #Indigenousart #folkart #gypsytraveller

Seriously feels like I've got pneumonia. Struggling to breathe, heavy/tight chest, I had a fever two days ago, plus I have pretty bad stomach pain. Dr today will be able to tell me. It's doing the rounds like! Never had this kind of viral or chest infection before it's hellish.

#indigenous #gàidheal #gàidhlig #scotland #scottishindependence #scottishnationalism #scottishculture #scotslanguage #scotsleid #colonialism #forcedassimilation #culturalgenocide #decolonization #bipoc #idlenomore

Gaelic and Scottish Nationalists need to get off their high horse and stop saying they are the only original victims of colonialism. You treat the original First Nations i.e Scottish Travellers like shit and still continue to oppress us to this day.

This was never imposed on Gaels or Scots – Gaels didn't have their kids snatched, put in slum housing or executed for being an "Egyptian". They wern't the ones being driven out of Scotland (shipped abroad) or put in Tinker Schools. All Gaels were punished for was for speaking Gàidhlig, that's it.

19th/20th century news clipping arguing for Travellers to be put on Native American style reservations. If Gaels and Scots truly saw us as being them, they wouldn't have suggested this extreme form of ghettoisation and isolation from Scottish society towards Scottish Travellers.

I hear Gaels claim their ancestors were the real victims of colonialism, yet here we have a perfect example of those victims descendants acting like the colonisers that their current living relatives refuse to acknowledge.
#gàidhlig #gàidheal #indigenous #gypsytraveller #colonisers #colonialism

Highland Gypsy Travellers in the News: A Note on Prejudices as Reflected in Nineteenth-Century Newspapers in the Highlands | Northern Scotland This note considers some of the reporting on Highland Gypsy Travellers by journalists writing in northern Scottish newspapers in the mid- and late-nineteenth century and illustrates the nature and ext...

www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/...

Mentions Travellers in the 19th century being driven out of Strathcarron with sticks by locals (Gaels) who were descendant of people cleared from their land. ⚠️WARNING ⚠️EXTREMELY DEHUMANISING LANGUAGE FROM THE SOURCES QUOTED IN THE ARTICLE.

4: The article above proves it unfortunately and Travellers who are involved in activism need to stop cooperating with MSP's, Councillors and other folk who do not give a shit about us. #Indigenous #Indigenouspeoples #indigenousrights #gypsytraveller #romany #irishtravellers #scottishtravellers

3: Because so long as the system of oppression continues to benefit the flattie hantle – to the point that they will always have the final say on our existence – then our lives will not "improve" as they constantly bleat on about. Travellers who work alongside the Gov are just as gulty.

2: This is why I laugh at the Scottish Government's pathetic strategies and "improving lives" nonsense, and why I get annoyed when other Travellers are so willing to work with a Government not made for Travellers. Shit like this is why things will NEVER go forward for us.

1: Not only is this rhetoric deeply dehumanising to Traveller folk like us, but is also very offensive to cultures who's housing is often said to be substandard by white privileged folks in the West 😤 If this were any other BIPOC group, the article would be immediately removed.

Tell me, is 139 heart beats per minute climbing up a small flight of stairs in my fiances home considered normal to you? Because my Dr apparently thinks so 🤷‍♀️ He thinks my heart is absolutely fine 😒 (according to him). I suspect I have POTS tbh.

#POTS #heartcondition #tachycardia #dysautonomia

That's really handy to know! Now I can knit a bonnet using this magic ring method. Thanks for sharing 😁

A children's book section at the Kirkcaldy galleries in Fife, Scotland. It shows many different kinds of books like "the gruffalo in Scots", "three craws" and non Scots written books like "smelly louie".

Guid tae see at least some Scots at the Kirkcaldy galleries. I did laucht at the beuk wi the dug though 😆 The bairns room haed Scots sentences scrieved oan the waws which wis nice tae see. Still, allot o wirk tae dae in terms o safeguarding Scots in Fife, but it's a stert!

Another front selfie of myself wearing the blue bonnet. I have a rather serious expression to my face haha

Selfie of me wearing my Scottish blue bonnet. It sits upon my head and the brim is slightly draped.

The top side of my light blue, Scottish blue bonnet. It is a wide circled beret style hat crocheted in half double crochet at the top. It is resting on one of my fiances T-shirts.

Started at 5am (my sleep sucks), finished at the back of 8pm. My Scottish blue bonnet is done! (no pattern to share as I made it up as I went along). Just needs a wee pom-pom and it's all set 😄
#crochet #crochetsky #knitsky #knitting #fiberarts #fiberprep #showmeyourknits #beret #handmade

A light blue, round Scottish blue bonnet being made in progress, using crochet. It rests on my red tartan bed covers. The hook is above the bonnet, still attached to the hat. The colour of the hooks grip is a grass green.

Making a traditional, Scottish blue bonnet – a type of beret historically worn by Lowland men from the 16th century onwards. I couldn't find a darker shade so it's a very light blue. This hat will be for myself, as gender doesn't matter now.
#crochetsky #knitsky #showmeyourknits #knittingandcrochet

#autism #autistic #actuallyautistic #neurodivergent #audhd #disabiled #disability #sendkids #takingthepip #disabilityrights #autismrights #welfarenotwarfare #disabilitycuts

Not only do we get let down by the education system, but it is that very same education system that has denied us jobs and supporting ourselves financially. It is a brutal industry that is clearly intended to deny any neurodivergent person opportunities in life. We are just statistics in Gov's eyes.

I have no qualifications and hardly any work experience because of the very same institution that was supposed to help me achieve, but failed to do so. That was 20 years ago and nothing has changed. Autistic kids are being massively let down and are stuck on welfare because there is nothing for us.

Seeing the SEND situation in the UK doesn't surprise me at all. 20 years ago, when I was a young child/teenager, I got no help in school for being Autistic. Pressures of bullying, lack of awareness from teachers and the sheer intensity of the schooling system meant that I was forced to leave school.

#gàidhlig #scotslanguage #scotstober #seachdainnagàidhlig #minoritylanguages #indigenouslanguages #languagesky #nativespeaker #motherlanguage #languagelearner #endangeredlanguages

8: Old attitudes towards the leid is the reason for it's massive decline and Fife Council need to stop saying it will only protect Gaelic and not Scots. Scots is Fife's last surviving, vernacular language and deserves equal amount of protection like Gaelic.

7: I'm not being anti Gaelic, I'm just stating a fact that you cannot favour one language like Gaelic over Scots which hasn't had native born speakers since the 1800s. We have vernacular Scots speakers from Fife (met many to testify) who are being side-lined and ignored.

6: I'm all for Gaelic being spoken and promoted in Fife, but it's not fair to exclude Scots in favour of Gaelic which hasn't been spoken properly since the 16th to the 19th centuries.

5: It's not a bad thing, but Gaelic has been extinct in Fife since the 19th century (the last native speakers were Fisher folk in the East Neuk of Fife!) and Scots on the other hand, still has native speakers (myself included) clinging on to dear life trying to prevent the leid from dying out here.

4: And Fife Council aren't even interested in safeguarding Scots. In 2024, I did a FOI request on the language and only £26'800 pound was put in place to fund the language, and other language related stuff seems to be only for Gaelic and not for Scots.

3: And now the youth (and youth in my family) don't even speak it at all. I believe Scots in Fife is functionally extinct and I say this as someone who has lived here since 1994 and has seen a massive change in the amount of people who went from speaking it, to hardly or never speaking it at all.

2: Take the Lang Toun (Kirkcaldy, where I live), there is no Scots awareness apart from the odd Scots sign or written Scots on a billboard. Scots was once strongly spoken in Fife is now hardly ever spoken. Allot of the older generation are reluctant to speak it unless it's Scottish-English.

1: It's great to see Seachdain na Gàidhlig (Word Gaelic Week) promoting Gàidhlig and showcasing Scotland's Indigenous language. But I feel as a Scots speaker we too need our own language week, as well as more cultural initiatives in areas where Scots is severely lacking.