Foreword from Lesley Riddoch

Suddenly, from all the grimness of lockdown and the staleness of news comes this wee gem of a collection - words from folk who live at the sharp end of life in Scotland.

By turn deft, knowing, outraged, upbeat and sorrowful, the folk contributing to this project are never less than honest and constructive. I was really moved by their determination to know more, change more and insist on being heard by the authorities. This is education at its most dynamic, cooperative and productive. I'm sure Paolo Freire would approve.

The first time I saw anyone else reading his dynamic but unsnappily titled paperback - The Pedagogy of the Oppressed - was in north-west Scotland in 1992. I was watching a crofter - the late Allan Macrae - herding sheep into a fank with his trusty sheepdogs in the pouring rain, rolling a fag with one hand and reading a dog-eared copy of Paolo Freire's book in the other. Freire contended that folk had to consciously unlearn the skillsets required to live as 'second class citizens' - and that helped him set the Assynt Crofters on course to reverse the tide of Scottish history and become the first crofters to buy their land from an absentee Laird. I've no doubt that when such a transformational moment presents itself, the folk involved in this HIIC course will use the insights and comradeship they've gained to start moving mountains - while taking care of one another.

Congratulations.

Lesley Riddoch is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist, author, cyclist, land reform campaigner & lover of all things Nordic.