Skip to content
  • About
  • About
Scottish Diaspora Blog
  • About
Written by tanja-sdb on September 20, 2017

Caledonian societies in the Antipodes

Research Story

Caledonian societies emerged as the primary driver of Scottish ethnic associationalism in the Antipodes, especially so in New Zealand, where the promotion of Caledonian Games was their very raison d’être —many societies were effectively born on the sports ground. Ultimately, the hosting of Games was to exert so significant an influence in colonial New Zealand that they became an integral part of the annual events calendar of many communities, and aided the development of athletics—no mean feat, and a factor that effectively safeguarded not only Scottish culture throughout the country, but also facilitated its very wide permeation. For although pipers clad in Highland costume who played Scottish tunes undoubtedly delighted ‘spectators hailing from the Land o’ Cakes’, Caledonian Games had a much wider appeal and, therefore, emerge as the second principal example—next to the types of patrician benevolence we have already examined—of how Scottish ethnic associational culture effectively transcended its immediate ethnic remit, linking activities directly to wider civic and community life.

In Australia, the consolidation of Caledonian societies from around the 1880s facilitated a recasting of the foundations of Scottish ethnic associationalism, moving beyond the patchy early developments. Part of a wider shift that set the focus on sociability and leisure rather than philanthropy, this recasting finally gave Australian Scots a sound base for formalized Scottish societies. One example of an organization thus established is the South Australian Caledonian Society, which was founded in 1881. Although the Society still retained charity among its wider objectives, the dispensation of aid happened on a comparatively small scale, at times including initiatives in support of Scots in Scotland itself. By and large, however, the South Australian Caledonian Society focused on the provision of entertainment, also by means of a literary club and library. In the late 1890s, the Society’s activities included piping festivals, smoke socials and concerts, as well as the customary annual celebrations. This secured a good membership over time, which tended to range somewhere around the 300 mark until the First World War, rising thereafter to a peak of over 500 in 1926. The Society was also strengthened through a branch system that extended well beyond Adelaide, including branches in Port Adelaide, Gawler, Mount Gambier, Port Augusta, Millicent, Port Pirie and Albert District. New additions to the activities offered, for instance the introduction of so-called ‘Bairns Classes’—dancing classes for children—proved popular, with 160 children taking part in 1904. Smaller gatherings too had ‘welded the bonds of Scottish brotherhood more closely’ since the Society’s inception. The Society’s scrapbook, full of snippets of all of its social and entertainment activities, powerfully underscores their prominence.

To this spirit of sociability and entertainment was connected another wider aim: the provision of leisure activities through the promotion of Caledonian Games, those ‘lusty sports … “stern and wild”’. In the small settlement of Timaru, located about halfway between Christchurch and Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island, Caledonian Games served, as the local newspaper noted, ‘a much-felt want’ in the community. Estimates of attendance numbers are reflective of this ‘want’: over the 1878–9 New Year holidays, at least 33,000 spectators attended the Caledonian Games held in Wellington, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin and Invercargill alone. Comprising Scots and non-Scots alike, this figure provides a clear indication of the Games’ popularity throughout New Zealand, and the story was a very similar one in Australia.

 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Archives

  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011

Calendar

March 2021
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Jan    

Categories

  • Announcement
  • Comment
  • Event
  • Guest Post
  • News
  • Photo Gallery
  • Research Story
  • Uncategorized
  • WW1

Copyright Scottish Diaspora Blog 2021 | Theme by ThemeinProgress | Proudly powered by WordPress