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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 April 2015
Reverend Professor Donald MacLeod - Supporting Witness (Professor of Systematic Theology, Free Church College, Edinburgh)
Sulian Stone Eagle Herney - Supporting Witness (Mi'Kmaq First Nation People, Nova Scotia, Canada)
This inquiry precognition (evidence) is submitted to The Scottish Office Inquiry Reporters Unit, 9th September 1994, in accordance with letter Ref. P/PP/75/W/4 of 19 July 1994: Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 - Application by Redland Aggregates Limited to Develop a Coastal Quarry at Lingerabay, South Harris.
1. Mackenzie, William C., History of the Outer Hebrides (Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1903)Google Scholar.
2. Carmichael, A., Carmina Gadelica (Floris Books, 1992)Google Scholar.
3. Wilson, Ian, Scotland's Hidden Wealth: Large Coastal Quarries and their Potential Role in Developing a Scottish Integrated Mineral Strategy, Conference Proceedings, (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland, 1991)Google Scholar.
4. Private notes on a meeting between Ian Wilson, Malcolm Slesser, Ulrich Loening, Alesia Maltz and Alastair Mcintosh, Centre for Human Ecology, June 1991.
5. See Barton, Harry, The Isle of Harris Superquarry: Concepts of the Environment and Sustainability in 5:2Environmental Values 97–122 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6. In lion hunting, an unwanted horse would sometimes be put out to attract the animal being stalked.
7. Letters by Alastair McIntosh and Ian Callaghan in Stornoway Gazette (30th April 1992 and 7th May 1992); Harris Croup to Look at Quarry Alternatives, West Highland Free Press 5 (05 29, 1992)Google Scholar.
8. Mcintosh, Alastair, Theology Goes Against Superquarry, Stornoway Gazette 11 (03 31, 1994)Google Scholar.
9. McIntosh, Alastair, “A Collector's Item” or Community Ownership - the Isle of Eigg Debate, 88 Edinburgh Review 158 (Summer 1992)Google Scholar. For analysis of Scottish land usurpment and contemporary conscientisation-based approaches to restitution, see McIntosh, Alastair, Wightman, Andy, Morgan, Dan, The Scottish Highlands in Colonial and Psychodynamic Perspective 24 (3) Interculture: International Journal of Intercultural and Transdisciplinary Research 1–36 (Montreal, 1994)Google Scholar; or by the same authors: Reclaiming the Scottish Highlands: Clearance, Conflict, Crofting, 24(2) The Ecologist 64 (1994)Google Scholar.
10. Panikkar, Raimon, Nine Sutras on Peace, 24 (1) Interculture 49–56 (Montreal, 1991)Google Scholar.
11. Dunn, Douglas, ed, The Faber Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry 30 (Faber and Faber, 1992)Google Scholar.
12. Wink, Walter W., Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Fortress Press, 1992)Google Scholar.
13. Ian Wilson, speaking from the floor at an openly tape-recorded public lecture on the Harris superquarry proposal by Dr. Alesia Maitz at Centre for Human Ecology, University of Edinburgh, 15 October 1991.
14. Gutierrez, Gustavo, The Power of the Poor in History (Orbis, 1983)Google Scholar.
15. Gutierrez, Gustavo, A Theology of Liberation xxxviii (Orbis, 1973)Google Scholar.
16. Id at 20-21.
17. Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Herder & Herder, 1970)Google Scholar; Kirkwood, Gerri and Kirkwood, Colin, Living Adult Education: Freire in Scotland (Open U Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Crowther, J., Martin, I., and Shaw, M., eds, Popular Education and Social Action in Scottish Communities (forthcoming from Moray House Institute of Education, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 1996)Google Scholar.
18. Illich, Ivan, Shadow Work (Marion Boyars, Inc., 1981)Google Scholar.
19. Id.
20. Rich, Adrienne, What is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (W.W. Norton, 1993)Google Scholar.
21. Walker, Alice, Revolutionary Petunias (The Women's Press, 1988)Google Scholar and Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (The Women's Press, 1985)Google Scholar.
22. Lorde, Audre, Sister Outsider (Crossing Press, 1984)Google Scholar.
23. In Gaelic “bh” is pronounced “v”; thus “Roin-e-val.”
24. McIntosh, Alastair, Journey to the Hebrides, 6 Scottish Affairs 52 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
25. Cochrane, Lynn, Stone Eagle to Fly in for Battle to Stop Superquarry, The Scotsman (09 17, 1994)Google Scholar.
26. MacLeod, Donald, “We sing today not the landlord's song …”, The Crofter 6 (05 1993)Google Scholar.
27. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Ch XIV, para 20.
28. Wright, Robert, Fundamental Feud, The Scotsman 14 (05 24, 1995)Google Scholar.
29. McIntosh, Alastair, ed, Theology and the Isle of Harris Superquarry Public Inquiry at 101 (collected papers)Google Scholar, Centre for Human Ecology, 15 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh (August, 1995) (available $25 airmail, 154 pp).
30. Massive Swing of Opinion Against Superquarry, West Highland Free Press 1 (06 26, 1995)Google Scholar.
31. MacLeod, Iain Aonghas, Roineghal, Stornoway Gazette 9 (05 25, 1995)Google Scholar & Raonald Chaimbeul 4 (June 1, 1995).
32. Wright, Fundamental Feud (cited in note 28).
33. CBC Fifth Estate documentary, Stone Eagle: Better Known as Billy, early December 1994. Stone Eagle's principal detractor in this film, a Mi'Kmaq anthropologist, recently approached him in the street and without solicitation said, “I'm sorry, Sulian.” Our complaint about serious misrepresentation was investigated but not further acted upon by the CBC ombudsman. For legal reasons I must emphasise that I have no firm evidence that the CBC did set out to frame Stone Eagle.
34. Editorial, All You Need Is… Wisdom, New Scientist 3 (June 10, 1995) and Letters, New Scientist 48 (July 1, 1995).
35. Unfortunately, as this article goes to press, University administrators have made a fresh move to destroy the Centre for Human Ecology by axing all staff positions and suspending the MSc course as of September, 1996. See A Narrow Kirk in Edinburgh, 2028 New Scientist editorial 3 (May 4, 1996) defending our tradition of “fearless inquiry.” We are currently considering setting up an independent Human Ecology Centre and perhaps even a free university.
36. Watson, Jeremy, Red Light Puts Brake on Green Quango, Scotland on Sunday 6 (12 24, 1995)Google Scholar.
37. 22 November 1995.
38. The $5, 000 cost was largely met by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Christendom Trust, an anonymous Hebridean-based company, a Canadian industrialist and farmer born in Harris and many well-wishers. I record profound appreciation to them and those who gave non-financial support, especially various colleagues in the University of Edinburgh (though this work was conducted under personal auspices), colleagues at the College of the Atlantic in Maine, my mother, Ian and Jane Callaghan, Dr. Donald Murray and many others who might not wish to be named on Lewis and Harris.
39. Allardyce, Jason, Media Out in Force for “Transatlantic Cultural Psychotherapy Session”, West Highland Free Press, front and back page (11 11, 1994)Google Scholar.
40. Lawson, Roderick, The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647 (including scripture proofs and comments) 7 (Knox Press, 1991)Google Scholar.
41. Id.
42. Id.
43. See McIntosh, Alastair, Wightman, Andy, Morgan, Daniel, Reclaiming the Scottish Highlands: Clearance, Crofting and Conflict, 24 The Ecologist 64 (1994)Google Scholar.
44. See, for example, Hunter, James, The Making of the Crofting Community 94, (John Donald, 1976)Google Scholar
45. See Meek, Donald, The Land Question Answered from the Bible: the Land Issue and the Development of a Highland Theology of Liberation, 103:2Scottish Geographical Magazine 84 (1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
46. McLeod, Donald, Highland Clearances: Donald McLeod's Gloomy Memories 35 (Archibald Sinclair, 1892)Google Scholar, Nevisprint facsimile reprint, Fort William, undated.
47. Id at 174.
48. See McIntosh, Journey to the Hebrides (cited in note 24).
49. deWitt, Calvin, The Environment and the Christian 108 (Baker Book House, 1991)Google Scholar.
50. Lawson, , The Shorter Catechism at 11 (cited in note 40)Google Scholar.
51. Id.
52. Id at 12.
53. Id at 11.
54. Id at 15.
55. Gen 8, 9.
56. Gen 9:11-13.
57. Gen 8:22, translation as used by the WCC at Seoul, or, “while the earth lasts” (NEB).
58. Gen 9:12.
59. It is worth considering how many future people our decision about destroying the mountain may affect. This is impossible to assess with confidence because we do not know the likely duration of the human race, though life on the planet can be expected to continue for at least the 4, 000 million (4 billion) years it has already been around for before the sun goes into supernova. However, we can arguably speculate numbers on the basis of the Biblical presumption that humankind will survive for the duration of the Earth.
Roineabhai, as part of the South Harris Igneous Complex, has probably been standing for 1, 870 million years. (Piper, J.D.A., Post-Laxfordian Magnetic Imprint in the Lewisian Metamorphic Complex and Strike-slip Motion in the Minches, NW Scotland, 149 Journal of the Geological Society 127 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar). If future populations of Harris were to average around 2, 000, and the average human lifespan to be three-score years and ten, then if the mountains endure for as long as they have already endured, the decision to demolish Roineabhai will affect scenic appreciation for a future 53 billion residents. This takes no account of visitors. It also neglects ice-ages which would very substantially reduce the number of habitable years. Nevertheless, the effect of thinking of future generations in any sort of numeric terms is salutary.
60. I am grateful for thinking inspired on this by my visiting academic colleague from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Professor Orin Gelderloos. See Gelderloos, Orin G., Ecotheology: the Judeo-Christian Tradition and the Politics of Ecological Decision Making (Wild Goose Publications, 1992)Google Scholar.
61. Psalms 104:30, 5, 18. NEB translates “conies” as “rock-badgers.” This text might be seen as apposite by those who are concerned about the effect of the quarry on the Lingerabay otter population.
62. Isaiah 24:4-5, NEB trans.
63. Matt 4:8; 5:1; 14:23; 15:29; 17:1; 24:3; 26:30; 28:16.
64. Regarding the notion that the Harris superquarry might become “a major tourist attraction” (Vol 1, 11.59, Council Joint Report), on a recent visit to a 3.5 million ton superquarry where the Cape Breton Island causeway connects to Nova Scotia, I asked the duty manager if tourists often came to visit. He indicated that I was their first.
The view has been expressed by, for instance, Mr. Ian Wilson, that the Lewisian Gneiss glaciated scenery of Harris “already looks like a moonscape, so the quarry would make no difference and might improve it.” This is a matter of opinion. It is arguably the case that some of the greatest poetry, song and music of the European tradition have come from such Cetic fringes on the Western Edge of the continent, as John Killick's poem about “Lewisian Gneiss Outcrops” printed on the cover of this presentation indicates (from Bruce, George, with Rennie, Frank, eds, The Land Out There: a Scottish Land Anthology 6 (Aberdeen U Press, 1991)Google Scholar). Perhaps places like Harris are here to be sources of such creative inspiration. Perhaps this is what the world needs now, and will demand increasingly in the future. The contribution of the Hebrides to global economy, the justification for subsidies, etc., is partly output in terms of inspiration to poetry, music, art and the many fruits of spirituality.
Kenneth White, Professor of 20th Century Poetics at the Sorbonne, is one powerful Scottish voice speaking to the relationship between ontology and nature. He writes about the poetics of deep relationship with place: “(It is) in those rock-piles-that the poetics lie … poetry, geography-and a higher unity: geopoetics …” White, Kenneth, Elements of Geopoetics, 88 Edinburgh Review 163 (Summer 1992)Google Scholar.
Consistent with Professor MacLeod's view (below) that “the primary function of the creation is to serve as a revelation of God, ” Hugh MacDairmid demonstrates how, even for an agnostic or atheist, Scottish landscapes like Harris call us to considering matters of ultimate concern—theology. In his epic poem, “On a Raised Beach, ” we see how secular pilgrimage draws the soul towards holy pilgrimage—pilgrimage which reveals the wholeness of all, the integrity of creation. (I am grateful to Tom Forsyth of Scoraig, Wester Ross, for drawing my attention to the meanings of pilgrimage in the context of our mutual work with the Isle of Eigg Trust.)
from On a Raised Beach
We must be humble. We are so easily baffled by appearances
And do not realise that these stones are one with the stars. …
Let men find the faith that builds mountains
Before they seek the faith that moves them. Men cannot hope
To survive the fall of the mountains.…
These stones go through Man, straight to God, if there is one.…
Who thinks God is easier to know than they are?
Trying to reach men any more, any otherwise, than they are?
These stones will reach us long before we reach them.…
What happens to us
Is irrelevant to the world's geology
But what happens to the world's geology
Is not irrelevant to us.
We must reconcile ourselves to the stones,
Not the stones to us.
-I lift a stone; it is the meaning of life I clasp
Which is death, for that is the meaning of death;…
- Though slow as the stones the powers develop
To rise from the grave - to get a life worth having;
And in death - unlike life - we lose nothing that is truly ours.
- Hugh MacDairmid
in The Land Out There at 13 (cited above).
65. Centre for Human Ecology, University of Edinburgh, information publication, 1990.
66. Isaiah 11:9.
67. Amos 5:24.
68. Matt 19:24.
69. Matt 6:19-34.
70. Matt 6:11.
71. Luke 17:20-21, NEB alternative translations.
72. Matt 6:30.
73. My focus here on theological arguments should not be allowed to give the impression that I am not also concerned about employment. In a letter to the Stornoway Gazette in April 19921 put forward ideas about local strategic planning, based on work undertaken on the Isle of Eigg. These were expanded on by Ian Callaghan and eventually contributed to the community's and their councillors' thought on the Harris Integrated Development Plan. With my American colleague, Dr. Maltz, I have also made proposals for value-added employment related to the Harris Tweed industry - one of Harris' biggest potential economic unique selling points. Dr. Maltz is following this through, looking at sales potential in Maine and Nova Scotia.
74. I am aware that my argument based on reverence can be weakened (though not undermined) if the presumption is made in a naive sense that non-renewable natural capital can be substituted for by human-made capital deemed to be of equal or greater value to what has been destroyed. Accordingly, I explore this question in an appendix, entitled: The Fallacy of the Presumption of Symmetrical Depreciation in the Substitutionality of Natural and Human-Made Capital (draft copy on file with this journal). This paper is presently being reworked into a more academic form with Dr. Gareth Edwards-Jones, an ecological economist colleague at the Scottish Agricultural College, hopefully to be published in a journal of ecological economics.
75. One theological perspective from which this view of reverence can be readily derived is that of a realized eschatology - an eschatology (that is to say, an understanding of the end of all things) which sees the Kingdom of Heaven as being potentially with us in the here and now. This is consistent, for instance, with Luke 17:20-21. In this text Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven comes unawares, that it is “all around” or “within” (NEB).
In Quaker theology as derived from Barclay's “Apology, ” this is a logical implication of Trinitarian theology and of the Incarnation which, by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, restores to our vision the immanence of the divine. Thus the ontological position becomes as it was with the Word “in the beginning” (John 1:1-5). In this way the world is potentially made anew in the transformed human heart, thereby answering the petition of the Lord's Prayer that “Thy Kingdom come… on Earth” (Matt 6:10). For many Quakers, such a theology dissolves any essential need for separate sacraments such as communion services, since all is taken up in “the sacrament of the present moment.” It is arguable that the ecological consequences may be a recognition that our lives are involved in “re-setting the seeds of Eden” (Mike Collard, Ireland).
I stress that the above exegesis is only one basis from which an understanding of reverence may be derived. For many people in the world, a sense of reverence arises quite outwith any theological context, Christian or otherwise. This happens as a natural and deeply felt movement in the heart, made amenable more by sensing and feeling than by rationality. As such, whilst having chosen to frame my main argument in theological terms as is fitting in the Western Isles, I hope that its conclusions might find merit with others who did not, as I did, grow up in a Presbyterian Hebridean context.
76. The Silkin Test is a principle of environmental assessment which says, of exploitation of a non-renewable resource, that we should:
1. Ensure that exploitation is “absolutely necessary” in the national interest.
2. Determine that there is no possible alternative source of supply.
3. If these conditions are satisfied, then ensure that restoration is carried out at the earliest opportunity.
77. Some experts, including Martin Kirk who I have faced on a debating platform with Mr. Ian Wilson, would hold that the future market for aggregate is unsteady, to the extent that the superquarry concept “is clearly flawed” and represents “the mistaken belief that ‘biggest is best’.” Kirk, Martin, Coastal Quarry or Superquarry? A Review of Strategy for Hard-rock Coastal Quarries, Quarry Management (08, 1993)Google Scholar.