Scottish event showcases culture and history

REGINA — A cool breeze wafts across the field, ruffling a multitude of kilts as bagpipes sound off from every corner, each seeming to play a different tune.

On Sunday, the First Nations University of Canada played host to this year’s Saskatchewan Highland Gathering & Celtic Festival, an annual event that sees pipers, dancers, drummers, heavy events athletes and exhibitors come together from across the Prairies to demonstrate their skills and to celebrate what it is to be Scottish.

Sharie Argue knows well what that entails. Hunkered down in a small tent, the walls rippling in the wind, Argue — Regina-based president of the Clan Mackenzie Society Canada — sits behind her computer as she plugs in various Scottish names for those wishing to research their roots.

Her interest in her ancestry began in childhood and later saw her jotting down all the information she could gather on recipe cards until she got her first computer.

“It’s just the chase of finding distant cousins, to find the living people,” she said of the allure of genealogy.

It isn’t unusual for Argue to find distant relations — something she was able to do once again on Sunday as she found she and a visitor to her booth share an ancestor.

“My database is growing,” she said. “This is just my personal database. It’s close to 47,000 people who are connected by birth or marriage. It seems that whatever event I go to, wherever I go, that I do find a distant cousin — or two or three or half a dozen.”

While her personal interest is obviously with her own clan, Argue said she is also happy to help people from other clan backgrounds look into their family histories.

“Anyone who has an interest in Scottish things at all, I’m interested in talking to,” she said.

Argue’s love of genealogy and history will see her heading to Scotland in June for a few weeks to do some research, as well as helping

“ANYONE WHO HAS AN INTEREST IN SCOTTISH THINGS AT ALL, I’M INTERESTED IN TALKING TO” SHARIE ARGUE, GENEALOGIST

the chief of the Mackenzie clan in conducting tours of Castle Leod in the Scottish Highlands.

But one doesn’t even have to have Scottish blood to feel at home at the annual Highland Gathering. Leah Sutton-Knowles, dancing co-ordinator for the local event, said one of her daughter’s friends decided to get involved in Highland dancing even though she has no known Scottish ancestry.

“I think it’s the history of the dancing,” she said of the overall draw.

“All of our dances are tied back to 300 or 400 years ago in history, and it’s a real cultural activity.”