Waulking songs, Orain Luaidh, were labour songs sung by women as they thickened and fulled the cloth known as Harris Tweed. The waulking of the cloth holds a special place in the history of the Hebridean people, its practices were steeped in ritual and localised folklores, varying from island to island and even in their breadth, from the one end to the other. The waulking’s accompaniment by singing lightened the load while unifying the beat of the hands that felted the fabric, passing from one singer to the next in a sun-wise direction, its very web absorbing the marks of a great oral tradition.

While the practices of waulking have waned, so too have those of stenography, the translation of corporate oral lore; the capturing of edicts, the taking of letters, in the phonetic script of shorthand.

Text itself is textile as philosophers and historians remind us, for in Latin textum means “web,” and textus “to weave.” Urban Fabric: Orain Luaidh is presented here as a stenographer’s pad, an embroidered collection of waulking songs stitching together urban business practices and rural oral traditions in shorthand.

Concept: Peta Carlin
Stenography: Margaret McGoldrick, Sharynne Durbidge Embroidery: Ursula Hill
Music: Bannal, ‘O 's fhada bhuainn Anna’, courtesy of MacMeanmna, http://www.gaelicmusic.com/
Photographs: Danny Colombo

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Bannal O 's fhada bhuainn Anna (MP3, 3MB)

• Ann Is Far From Us - English Ann Is Far From Us - English
• Ann Is Far From Us - Scottish Gaelic Ann Is Far From Us - Scottish Gaelic
• Ann Is Far From Us - Shorthand page 1 Ann Is Far From Us - Shorthand page 1
• Ann Is Far From Us - Shorthand page 2 Ann Is Far From Us - Shorthand page 2
• Son of John, Son of James - English Son of John, Son of James - English
• Son of John, Son of James - Scottish Gaelic Son of John, Son of James - Scottish Gaelic
• Son of John, Son of James - Shorthand Son of John, Son of James - Shorthand
• Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - English Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - English
• Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Scottish Gaelic Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Scottish Gaelic
• Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Scottish Gaelic Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Scottish Gaelic
• Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Shorthand Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Shorthand
• Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Shorthand Sorrowful, Sorrowful, Melancholy Am I - Shorthand
• One Day as I Travel the Moorland - English One Day as I Travel the Moorland - English
• One Day as I Travel the Moorland - Scottish Gaelic One Day as I Travel the Moorland - Scottish Gaelic
• One Day as I Travel the Moorland - Shorthand One Day as I Travel the Moorland - Shorthand
• I Am Full of Longing - English I Am Full of Longing - English
• I Am Full of Longing - Scottish Gaelic I Am Full of Longing - Scottish Gaelic
• I Am Full of Longing - Scottish Gaelic I Am Full of Longing - Scottish Gaelic
• I Am Full of Longing - Shorthand I Am Full of Longing - Shorthand
• I Am Full of Longing - Shorthand I Am Full of Longing - Shorthand
• Do You Intend to Marry - English Do You Intend to Marry - English
• Do You Intend to Marry - Scottish Do You Intend to Marry - Scottish
• Do You Intend to Marry - Shorthand Do You Intend to Marry - Shorthand
• Blessing - English Blessing - English
• Blessing - Shorthand Blessing - Shorthand
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Peta Carlin is an artist and designer whose work explores the role of the crafts in the establishment of community. She has a particular interest in Harris Tweed, on which her PhD, and a series of forthcoming projects, is based. Her passion for Harris Tweed is the result of the generosity of the Scottish-Gaelic Society of Victoria and their performance of waulking and other traditional songs at her exhibition, Urban Fabric: Greige (2007).