The Parliament of Crows was created as part of 'Seen and Heard,' a collaboration between Craigmillar Now and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The song was written by Laura, John, Gus, Simran, Muriel, Rajdip, Rose, Margaret, Sandie, Emma, Aisling and Phil.

A Parliament of crows
Gathered to dispel fears 
and create positive vibrations

A group of all ages come together in song
Loud and outgoing, they all get along

We are a group of conscious nine
We don't mind whatever age and time x 2

The beat was loud in places
and brought everyone together
dispelling fears creating positive vibrations
Diverse and freaky it was quiet with beauty
Swaying in time to the rhythmic music

We are a group of conscious nine
We don't mind whatever, age and time (x4)

The Parliament of Crows

Mags Blair started working with the Craigmillar Festival Society (CFS) as Helen Crummy's secretary in 1973 and she worked with the CFS until 1999. 
Helen described Mags as 'understanding the Craigmillar Festival Society better than anyone else' (24:47)
Andrew Crummy is the son of Helen Crummy.

In the recording Mags talks about:

Working with Helen Crummy and a group of local women, many young mothers and Steve Burgess, an academic from the University of Edinburgh. 
The decline of industry in Craigmillar and the EU funding the CFS secured in 1976.
10:37 Neighbourhood Workers 
'Half their work was done on their way to work'
15:02 The men behind the women
'That's what drove it, these strong women' 
15:28 The children of the CFS – Micky McPherson, (Plum Films); David Kivlin, )Grand Theft Auto); Reg Wilkinson, Justine Blair (artist), Nikki King (singer).
19:09- 24:00 Community musicals and Pantomimes: Sleeping Beauty, Rabbie Burns 
24:47 Mags' experience working with the CFS
30:00 The Community Plan for Action 
31:07 'You were always ahead of your time' 
33:00 The CFS pioneers and the legacy of the CFS 

The conversation was recorded at Craigmillar Now Arts Centre by Hannah Calder.

'You Were Always Ahead of Your Time' Mags Blair and Andrew Crummy in conversation

MICHAEL INMAN – Craigmillar School 1994 and Niddrie Adventure Playground 1994 quad
Sort of a buzz I’d say. I’d say- fun? I’d say…a bit chaotic, which is great!
It really reminds me of me being a little wild kid in the playground, where its just sort of like anyone’s world, it was great, you could just clamber all around and everyone’s like “you get out the way, you get out the way” cos they’re all trying to pose and there’s one at the front whose just like “yeah I’m posing!” and everyone else is like “me me me me me” at the back and I just love that and it brings me right back to being like 6 or 7 or 8 and just having that little wild child sense of feeling of being off and about and clambering around. Just sort of like in hysterics sort of like giggling you know about that. That was something that er, and that’s how…this was sort of like…I want to get in this space and its all these kids together, it’s really good like that but also like, there’s a little one right in the front who’s just so confused and is just like “what’s going on? What’s that?” and that probably would have been me at their age.
Its just really wholesome that there’s like a police officer there, they must have had an interactive day with them or something and they’re just, everyone’s just having a whale of a time and it’s just really nice.
It reminds me of being a little tyrant at that age, and just being a bit of a wild child, and I can almost feel like, I can hear the picture, if you know what I mean, with the kids and everything like that in that space, you know the atmosphere is so well reflected with that in the way its just been captured and I just love that. It makes me feel really

Michael Inman talks about Sandra George's photo of  Craigmillar School  1994

I just really love the character in the ladies’ faces, and the woman with the headscarf, and yeah, it just really captures a moment in time I think, its just really quite, quite special, and the lighting, which just really focuses in on the people.
Erm, I also love the fact that like they’ve got really focused on the bingo but then the ash tray hasn’t got any ash in it, its like full of bingo cards, and you can just see that they’ve just been having a really good time.
Quite nostalgic, it makes me…I can just imagine them being there and just having a really nice time and…yeah, I suppose I’ve kind of… as a young person when that was taken I wouldn’t have been interested in bingo, but since ive grown up over the years Ive got a bit more involved in it and I can just really imagine all the calls and, it just really conjures up lots pleasant memories so…yeah.

Laura McNamee talks about Sandra's Photograph from the Craigmillar Day Centre 1994

Moving, static, and abstract.
I really like the shapes…ermm…it almost looks like a guillotine? I don’t know why I like that! 
I really love the shapes and the starkness of it…and I love the shadow, the shadow makes me think of like a spaceman in out of space… sort of in this disembodied placenta type thing. Floating – which she is, but obviously on the ground.
Its funny it’s a moving picture, and yet its very static, and I quite like those two juxtapositions of moving and yet static, and I love the shapes and I’m just really into shapes in photos. 
I want to go and have a shot. I just, I was really, I think partly because it reminds me of myself as a child, I absolutely loved rough and tumble outdoorsy type things – swings and anything that moved. I mean, nowadays you know, that would be a health and safety nightmare although there is sand underneath. And I like that. Its not sanitised by modern times, its quite rough, basic, and something that children love to play on, the more dangerous the better.
.

Julie Berman talks about Sandra George's photo of a girl on a zip wire at the Venchie

RC: Do you remember where it is?
TH: Yes erm…I don’t actually know the name of it but I know the bus stop. I cant remember where we would have been, maybe Mcgovern House? Erm…and I was just…yeah me and Sandra were just getting the bus home. And as she usually did – taking me up, taking some pictures as we were waiting…and I was just messing about. As a kid does.
RC: What was it like being a model for Sandra?
TH: Erm…sometimes she had to nag me to be involved but you got used to it. Grew up with the kitchen being a dark room as often as not. Erm so yeah, anytime she had a film that had shots left on their, she’d use them on me or on the odd self portrait. So even amongst these folders there are pictures of me alongside project work. Yeah there’s just so many. But it’s…it is weird looking back, like some of these, looking at them and going “oh I remember that!” but, until you see the picture you don’t recall these things or really think about them as much. That’s one of the most powerful things I think when it comes to photography, its not…it’s a means of finding a memory. And it helps you remember these things, you might, might always forget. And it is one of those…it is one of the things I certainly say when it comes to, whenever you’ve got important stuff, but certainly more so when you’ve got kids – take lots of pictures. Right up until the point when they hate it. Keep taking pictures, because kids change so much…erm…I mean adults do from time to time but children especially just going, in the first few years, in the first few years you want to remember all these moments. And kids themselves are not going to remember you know the early years especially, so…taking pictures lets you show the things they physically cant remember or experience. And, the whole point, or a certain part of being a parent, and a grandparent, is to share, share that experience.  And its a perspective I’ve grow up with you know living with a photographer, growing up with a mother who was an artist, and a photographer. And certainly now looking back at the collection and you think oh my god, there’s decades of history tied up, not just memories, historical events and activities that have in some way shaped hundreds if not thousands of people. If not just the people who attended the projects that Sandra worked at, but you’ve certainly got their families and loved ones will have benefitted in some way from the perspectives that Sandra shared with them. Or even not even just perspectives but like certain opportunities. Not just from Sandra’s perspectives but an outlook that a lot of community work benefits from is the fact that you’re doing something that will open doorways to activities and perspectives that a lot of adults and children would not garner from being involved in just their normal day to day lives, being able to go to these projects, see different things, have some of their ideals challenged, to open their eyes to other ways of thinking can sometimes change lives for the better. Yeah, open the doors to education or other jobs, it all stems back to what Sandra found meaningful. In the hardest points in her life she strived to promote education and promote doing hobby style activities to encourage people to evolve.

Tyler Hewitt talks about Sandra George's portrait of him at the bus stop

Sandra was NOT a fan of animals, as such, she was not a pet fancier of any kind. 
Here we errr we’ve got the kids holding the pigeons. It was em…one of these things, I know craigmillar had a lot of pigeon huts, lot of pigeon fanciers, certainly when I was a kid, and I remember going along a handful of times, cos Sandra was taking pictures in some fashion of this group, and I yeah I remember i ended up going along, and some of the kids showed up and they’re all getting shown the pigeons…and err, to various reactions, and I just remember sorta being very cautious. 
So it was…it tickles me a little bit now actually looking back at this…she wasn’t afraid to encourage kids to do things like this, challenging them to try new things – touch a pigeon! Something she would have been a little shy in doing herself, because she did NOT like animals.
I had, it must have been around the same age – 7 or 8 maybe? Probably a little bit older, when I had my first err I ended up with one gerbil, for I dunno, a few months maybe before it died. It was sickly, it died, but it was very adamant that Sandra didn’t want anything to do with it. Didn’t like, didn’t like, barely liked having it in the house!

Tyler Hewitt talks about Sandra George's photo of the Outreach project

Craigmillar Now is an arts and heritage organisation and home to the Craigmillar archives.
You can find oral histories on this page, kindly shared with us by members of the Craigmillar community. 
If you would like to share your memories of Craigmillar with us please get in touch, you can contact us at info@craigmillarnow.com

The Parliament of Crows

CraigmillarNow

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