Croeso! This blog ceased to be regular in 2014.
Articles remain as a potential resource for:

• Welsh and Expatriate Welsh.
• Welsh-Language Learners. 
• Anyone interested in the Welsh language. 
• Anyone interested in Minority Cultures.
• Anyone interested in Post-colonialism/Neo-colonialsm.

Tarar now

Panning Cambrain: Welsh Gold Mining Colony in Central Otago

New Zealand's Welsh Colony of the Deep South

This essay won first prize in the Takahe Cultural Studies Essay Competition back in 2010. Like the last essay on Patagonian Welsh in Austalia's Naorthern Territory, it's just been lying around on the laptop desktop gathering cyber-dust.

But the subject matter's as relevant as ever, and even if you're not so enthused about all things Welsh, the local culture is of equal interest. It's worth taking five minutes out of your way to discover this place.

This is essentially a piece of travel writing that will entertain and briefly help you escape to another place. A beautiful place, as you'll see from the photographs.

Download the embeded PDF below and read the essay from there.

Panning Cambrian by H.T.R. Williams

5 Humourous Welsh Signage Mishaps

Sgymraeg Am Byw!

Sgymraeg - n. A poor-standard version of Welsh (Cymraeg) often used when translations need to be made from English. Frequently seen in Wales now as the nation increases its efforts to be politically correct and bilingual, whilst at the same time Welsh-language fluency levels remain low.

Welsh signs of all sorts, menus, etc. are becoming more consistently bilingual. The problem creating the phenomenon of 'Sgymraeg' is that Welsh-language fluency levels aren't on a par with widespread efforts to have just about everything written in Welsh as well as English. The Welsh Language Society (Cymdaithas Yr Iaith) views Sgymraeg as an indication of ignorance and disrespect for the language. In some cases this seems true. On the other hand, you might choose to cut people some slack, since a lot of Welsh speakers have had to learn the language from scratch and are obviously trying their best. Like this person, maybe:

You can probably figure out what happened in this case:

But how the hell does something like this one below happen?

This next one could have been just an obvious, unfortunate spelling mistake (Busnesau / Busnesa), except for the translator completely reversing the original meaning as well:

This one originates from a cannibalistic Tesco's in Haverford West:

View more Sgymraeg signs here, or buy a whole book of them here. Please also check out my latest eBook,, or download a fiction ebook for free.Hwyl!

Welsh Patagonians in Australia's Northern Territory

A lot of people know the story of the Welsh Patagonians.


Fewer know the stories of the Welsh Patagonians who left Argentina to found other colonies.


Hardly anyone knows this story!


The longing for a place where the grass is always greener conflicts with our hireath for home. Scandalous deceit on the part of the British Empire, propaganda written by a fellow Welshman with a New Zealand connection, and the misfortune that awaited those Welsh Patagonians who swallowed the lies and attempted to colonise Australia's Northern Territory.

I wrote this essay for a competition a couple of years ago. It didn't win, and I couldn't find another home for it, so now you lucky readers of my blog (all three of you) get to read it for free . . .

Download A White Ant Dreaming as a FREE PDF file:

A White Ant Dreaming

What Scotland’s ‘White Paper’ Says About Democarcy.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) revealed their plan for Scottish independence earlier this year in the form of the ‘White Paper.’ This 650-plus page document has only added more questions to the independence debate.

Also recently, Professor Will Storrar – a visiting Scottish Presbyterian theologian and a world leader in public theology – gave a talk at the University of Otago based on this same issue of Scottish independence.

Meanwhile, the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation continue testing for oil and gas deposits off the Otago coast despite public protests.

Who’s Independence?

The whole point of Storrar’s talk was to emphasise that the Referendum is not a matter for the political parties, but for the everyday people of Scotland to decide. But what does it mean for the people of Scotland to decide their future? What does that mean for any people anywhere?

In an age where commerce dominates almost every concern, and when both campaigning sides must be well-funded and therefore must necessarily have vested interests, is it even possible for people to have any ‘independent’ say in their future at all?

At the heart of the Scottish question is the more universal question of whether or not democracy actually works anymore. If it doesn’t, what alternatives are there?

Democracy or Aristocracy?

The first Scottish constitutional referendum was held in 1979. The issue then was whether or not to set up what at that time was to be known as a Scottish Assembly, which would deal with legislative matters in areas such as education and health.

The Scottish voted 51-49% in favour of the idea. The majority won, but this was still ignored by Westminster due to a clause which stated that unless 40% of the total electorate voted in the referendum the vote would fail.

As the writer Philip Temple observed in the Otago Daily Times, are referendums even viable if politicians can decide if and when to honour the results? Is that democracy? If our vote can ultimately be ignored by an elite who know better, isn’t that rather an aristocracy?

Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. The classical philosophers distinguished democracy, aristocracy and monarchy as three alternative models of government. The danger of a monarchy is that the single leader can become a tyrant; the danger of aristocracy is that it can become an oligarchy; and the danger of democracy is that it can become  a 'mob rule' situation.

Power Corrupts . . .

The Scottish Parliament was eventually established but it wasn’t long before it was used by individuals promoting their own special interests. It showed once again that those in power  weren’t really concerned for the everyday people at all – and this time it wasn’t so easy for the Scots to blame Westminster. A similar situation has occurred with Welsh political devolution too.

So what’s new this time around? The drive for independence may seem like a glorious new vision for the future of Scotland but already there are tell-tale signs that exactly the same kind of treachery is already afoot.

For example, the SNP have always been staunchly anti-nuclear. An independent Scotland would boldly banish Trident from its base on the Clyde. However, in the White Paper they now announce that NATO ships would be allowed to use Scottish ports without having to declare whether or not they were carrying nuclear weapons.

This policy has been determined not by and for the people of Scotland but by and for the United States. According to The Spectator, “American military sources have made it clear that they would resist Scotland’s entry to NATO without an assurance that they could continue to use Faslane for their own Trident submarines.”

Black Gold, Old Story.

And of course, we haven’t even touched on Scotland’s untapped oil resources, estimated to be worth at least 120 billion pounds. The Scottish government's oil and gas analytical bulletin of March 2013 estimated that remaining North Sea oil and gas reserves had a combined wholesale value of 1.5 trillion pounds.

Is there anyone left who could possibly believe that this much money won’t affect the long-term outcome in Scotland? And just think what drilling for oil off the coast of the Otago region might do to New Zealand’s ‘democracy.’ They can take our oil but they’ll never take our freedom?

Personally I’m not so optimistic.

‘Fugitive Democracy.’

For all his necessary restraint in the face of secular pluralism, at least Professor Storrar had something positive to point to. He advocated the ‘fugitive democracy’ described by political philosopher Sheldon S. Wolin, where people spontaneously mobilise to protest against the powers that be, and win.

In the information age, people are mobilizing more easily. They’re also better informed on these kinds of issues. The passion is there, as the Occupy Movement showed. And the Arab Spring showed us just how powerful this kind of ‘fugitive democarcy’ can be.

The task is to nurture the civic conscience of society, according to Storrar. “The voices of conscience,” he said, “are always being stifled, through the media, and ultimately by more repressive means. And yet, and yet, the voice of conscience will not be silent, from Edinburgh to Dunedin.”

       

Comparing Welsh and Maori Poetry.

What right do I have to write about the experience of Maori? It doesn't make much difference that I was in a seven year relationship with a Maori, on the peripheries of, or living with, that culture. My cultural experience in that setting was as a white European looking in from the outside.

You could even argue that I was the 'coloniser' intruding on the 'colonised.' By virtue of my skin-colour alone my whole life experience has been totally different. Well, I accept that's all true - but only to a point. If the shoes I've walked in personally can be taken out of the 'colonising, privileged European' shoe-box, and seen for what they are in the light for just a second, what then?

The Political Situation for Maori and Welsh.

When it comes to my experience as a Welsh person -- a member of an indigenous minority whose native language and culture are under threat -- then the differences are only skin-deep.

The political situation for Maori and Welsh is strikingly similar. As a writer, of course I want to write about these similarities. As a Welsh person I want to extract all the insights I can learn from this common situation and pass it on in the hopes that it might somehow be beneficial to people of any cultural minority anywhere who are experiencing something similar.

I'm not trying to claim Maori culture or the Maori experience as my own. I've never tried to, have never been interested in doing that. What I'm trying to do is compare the two situations so that the bigger picture of what both Maori and Welsh are up against - Anglo-American hegemony - becomes more obvious.

Maori and Welsh, Poets and Poetry.

As a poet writing in English (since like many Maori and Welsh I'd lost my native language through the processes of English imperialism) I was also interested in looking at what Welsh and Maori poets writing in the English language had been saying.

I used post-colonial theory to analyse the work of Anglo-Welsh poet R.S. Thomas and Anglo-Maori poet Hone Tuwhare to see if there were any similar observations, feelings or themes being expressed. Both these poets were born and raised prior to the revival/renaissance of their indigenous culture, and both had struggled for years to learn their native language.

Both decided to write in English because it was the language they were able to use more ably. Both regretted not being able to write their poetry in the language of their own people. Beyond that, yes, there were some pretty big differences on the surface:

Most notably, Hone Tuwhare appeared cheerful most of the time whereas R.S. Thomas was a seriously miserable-looking dude. If you'd like to read what else I discovered in my analysis please read my essay on the subject -- you'll find it at page 103 of this issue of the University of Otago's ezine Deep South.

Portrait of R.S.Thomas used with kind permission of Daf - check out more of his artwork.

Photo of Hone Tuwhare from honetuwhare.org.nz.

Nationalism vs. Facism Part II

“The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.” The Upanishads.

(Read Part One of this post first.)

How can a nation and culture the size of Wales maintain its unique identity and language without becoming exclusive? The best answer I ever heard on this subject was made from a Christian perspective, although it’s not necessary to be Christian in order to believe in and apply its spiritual message.

I came across this idea in A.M. Allchin’s brilliant little gem on the Welsh poetic tradition entitled Praise Above All: Discovering the WelshTradition. The idea centres on the polarity between the biblical ‘myths’ of Babel and Pentecost.

The Babel Myth.

In the Old Testament story of Babel, all humanity comes together in unity. The people build a giant, towering city reaching the heavens. They live there together in the one location and they all speak the same language.  

This is against the will of God, who originally decreed that human kind should “spread out, fill the earth and become many.” God deliberately ‘strikes’ the people of Babel with multiple languages in order to confuse their efforts.

With everyone speaking a different tongue and no one able to understand his or her neighbor, the inhabitants of Babel are no longer able to cooperate effectively. Eventually they disperse to different regions of the earth and become various nations.

The Pentecost Myth.

At the other end of the biblical story, in the New Testament, the story of Pentecost repairs or heals the division originally caused at Babel. Confused tongues are replaced by tongues of fire that float above the heads of believers as they miraculously communicate with foreigners who speak alien languages.

The interesting thing here is that God doesn’t unify people by replacing all the various languages with one universal language. Unity coexists with variety – it doesn’t come through uniformity. The Spirit gives different gifts for each individual.

The harmony this miracle brings thrives in freedom and the tolerance of difference.  It brings out multiplicity instead of seeking to suppress it, continuing the richness of the universe that God has created from the beginning.

This idea of catholicity has been a teaching of the Christian church from the outset. The apostle Paul attempts to explain this unity in diversity with the illustration of the human body. There is one body made up of multiple parts – eyes, nose, arms, feet etc. Each part has its own unique attributes and abilities (‘gifts’) to bring to unified functioning of the whole.

“Edau caeth brawdoliaeth dyn, edau ein rhyddid wedyn (In the binding yarn of brotherhood is also the thread of our freedom).” James Nicholas.

Unity in the Spirit.

“The human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein.

So it is with the mystical unity of the ‘Church’ (the entire body of Christian believers throughout the ages, despite their being separated by time, distance, race, culture and language). But the Spirit that seeks to unify humanity in this way needn’t be (and arguably cannot possibly be) confined to the sphere of organized Christian religion alone.

“Ynof mae Cymru’n un (In me, Wales is one).” Waldo Williams.

Allchin quotes the Methodist missionary John D. Davies in this regard. Davies experienced the meeting of major and minor languages whilst working in southern Africa, where dominant international cultures were imposing themselves upon the many threatened, local, minority cultures. Davies used the Pentecost story to speak in their defence:

“The miracle of Pentecost is not just that people are enabled to understand each other . . . The point is made with considerable emphasis, that communication comes to them not in the international language of the powerful, but in the local languages of family, region, nation . . . This is the heart of the miracle. Our own language, however insignificant in the eyes of the empire builders and powerful advertisers, is claimed as a suitable vehicle for the good news . . . Those who heard the apostles’ words did not only get information about events external to themselves; they also got an assurance of their own value, through the affirming language which shaped their basic perceptions.” John D. Davies, The Faith Abroad.

The language of a people is inseparable from their perception of the world and themselves. The destruction of a people’s language is therefore not only a loss in terms of their identity as a people, but also as people. Welsh nationalism, in so far as it remembers itself within the unity of all humanity, opposes fascism, opposes imposed uniformity. As someone once put it, “the struggle for the Welsh language is a victory for all indigenous languages everywhere.”

Fiat Lingua: Against Uniformity.

“I think one of the greatest threats to the twentieth century, which is symbolized as a well as represented by the threat of nuclear extinction, is that of sameness, uniformity, of seeing all things and all places as if they were one. But the parochial poet can help make the world larger again, and can help us to breathe, can help us to feel the reality of the world in which we live by dwelling upon the particular, by discovering or rediscovering the particular . . . Drawing attention to the reality of any particular place does something rather similar for all other places.” Jeremy Hooker.

“The disappearance of nations would impoverish us, not less than if all men were to become alike, with one personality and one face. Nations are the wealth of mankind, its generalized personalities; the least among them has its own unique coloration and harbours within itself a unique facet of God’s design.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn.