Review by Rose Sarafilovic

The Scottish Storytelling Centre

Warrior/Poet, told by David Hughes, weaves together narratives of (relatively) modern, historical and personal acts of protest those attempting to encroach on land that is not theirs and which they have no right to. Starting with Hughes telling us about how he thought that he could save the Amazon rainforest through the almighty power of a coffee morning and Rice Krispies treats (which raised an impressive £300) and setting the audience up for an hour of genuine emotion and surprising humour.

We begin properly with the story of Sweeney, an old pagan king who loved spending time in the nature around him more than anything else and the priest Ronan, who has decided to build a church on Sweeney’s land and is dead-set on the task after a prosperous omen. Then, in retribution, Sweeney tries to kill Ronan, and after failing, Ronan curses Sweeney to live forever in the lands he adores as a bird. From there we are told about Hughes’ experience with trying to re-find the magic of the world through a series of spiritual practices, which wound up with him in a tent with a woman named Pebble welcoming him to wail his grief into a bowl of water (and makes it as humorous as it sounds).

We then dive into the meat of the story, the protests against the building of the M77 through Pollock Park and the creation of the Free State of Pollock, which started when Colin Macleod, the “bird man” of Pollock, climbed a tall beach tree in the park and stayed there for 9 days in protest of the M77. Here is where the connection between all we’ve been told starts to come together, as we’re told how the protest failed despite the efforts of the community, more about King Sweeney, and the parallels are drawn between the monsters that chase the bird-king and the diggers that destroyed Pollock Park and how we only remember both of these things because people deemed these stories worthy of remembering.

It’s heartening to hear that the history the Scottish people have with ecological destruction and encroachment on the natural world is one of resistance against those who would destroy it; even when we ourselves may not own the land, we are still connected to it, as Hughes says, “Land isn’t something you can own, it’s something you belong to”. This story was incredibly told and you can’t hear it without thinking about the connection to the current ravages of climate change, or the various injustices of colonial violence across the world, but are nonetheless filled with hope that your actions can make some small difference about it, even if that’s just a coffee morning.

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