by Moments of Freedom
‘As New Scot women we bring new perspectives, ideas and innovations as gifts to our communities in Scotland.’
Clydesider Creative recently had the pleasure of working with Moments of Freedom, a community group led by New Scots women resettled in Clydebank.
As part of our National Lottery funded creative storytelling project the women created a welcome booklet for fellow New Scots.
“We chose this title ‘Welcome New Scots’ to show the arrival welcome for people, to show them how we passed all the barriers and where we are now to give them a good and comfy feeling
about the future and get some powerful advice from us,” explained a member of Moments of Freedom.
Another woman said New Scots feel like it’s “a new birth in their lives” when they first arrive and the group hope their booklet will help new arrivals so they “do not feel as if they are in a strange country.”
The group enjoyed a series of creative workshops making posters, mosaics and cyanotype artwork.
They also shared recipes, advice and poems and then chose the content and helped plan the design of their booklet.
Creating and Reminiscing
The creative sessions used art techniques many of the women had tried at home – and introduced them to some new activities.
During the sessions the group reminisced about various Arabic arts and crafts activities and techniques they had all tried growing up in Syria, these included a wax fabric painting technique
called batik painting, pinch pots, flooring mosaics and fabric painting clothes.
The group enjoyed learning new creative activities and using new materials.
“It is very enjoyable, and everyone puts their energy and thoughts into creating different forms of drawing and crafts, but in the end most of them come out with the same meaning and feeling,” said one of the women.
And another commented: “I enjoyed doing the mosaic. Also, I enjoy working in a team to do the painting on fabric, it was good fun.”
The group is supported by development support charity Outside the Box.
Community Development advisor, Kate Robertson, felt the creative storytelling sessions had been a great success.
She said: “This is wonderful to have the group learn so many new skills they can use going forward.
“I think we can learn a lot from this method of planning out a leaflet or a booklet, it’s much more creative than the way we currently do it.”
For more information about Moments of Freedom follow then on X and Outside the Box on Facebook
