A weekend celebrating Palestinian culture through stories, food, crafts, films and family activities.
Join us at The Iona Gallery for a fantastic weekend filled with creativity and delicious cuisine. This weekend is all about celebrating culture, community and supporting a great cause.
We will be accepting donations on the door for Hope & Play, a UK-based charity supporting Palestinian children. All donations beyond covering event costs will be given to them, and 100% of each donation goes towards their projects on food and water, art and play, and education.
**Registration is needed for some parts of the event, marked below, due to venue capacity. Other parts of the event are drop-in with no registration required.**
Friday 28 November
Film night with mint tea!
7pm for a prompt 7.30pm start - please register
We are delighted to share the film 'Foragers' by Jumana Manna (60 mins), plus another short Palestinian film.
‘Foragers’ depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. ‘Foragers’ captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.
Suggested donation: £10 - cash or card on the night.
Saturday 29 November
A day of family activities, crafts and art, Palestinian food, and talks. We invite you to join some or all of the day!
We will have a quiet reading area with books and resources, and will also be selling Palestinian products provided by Highland Wholefoods (great as Christmas presents!) Payments by card or cash.
10.30am-12.30pm - drop in (no registration needed)
Crafts and activities, including:
Lego printing - with Colleen Coe, Timber + Stitch Studio
Kite-making
Storytelling - Palestinian folktales with Sarah Hobbs, Strathspey Storywalks
Colouring - Palestinian tatreez (embroidery) and Islamic patterns, contributed by artist Lizzie Hobbs
Music and song
12.30pm-2pm - drop in (no registration needed)
A delicious home-made Palestinian lunch (and you can buy some of the ingredients afterwards!)
2pm-4pm - please register
Short talks about Palestine with local folk, followed by discussion. We are thoroughly delighted to welcome the following speakers:
Avigail Abarbanel was born and raised in Israel and served in the Israeli army. In 1991, at age twenty-seven she moved to Australia, and ten years later renounced her Israeli citizenship in protest. She’s beens speaking and writing about Palestinian human rights and against Israel’s Zionist settler-colonialism ever since. In 2010 Avigail moved to the Scottish Highlands, where she lives and works. She is a BACP Senior Accedited psychotherapist in private practice, a clinical supervisor, consultant and trainer. Avigail is a published author and the editor of Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists. (For more information please visit fullyhuman.co.uk and
https://avigail.substack.com/).
Brendan Stephens is an international observer who represents 'Friends of Madema and Burin', having visited with other international volunteers to harvest olives with the Green Olive Collective. Having spent time with Palestinians in both villages, he will share observations from his recent visit to the Occupied West Bank of settler and IDF activity and the impact of this upon increasingly isolated rural and farming communities.
Suggeted donation: £5-10 - cash or card on the day.
This event is organised by The Olive And The Pine, a group of Badenoch and Strathspey residents who stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. The group is open to anyone who wishes to learn more about Palestinian heritage and culture, and who supports peace, justice and equal human rights in the region. The group includes a wide range of people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
We aim to raise awareness through learning circles, film screenings, arts and crafts, sharing Palestinian food, and fundraising.
The group chose its name because olive trees have long played a pivotal role in the cultural and economic life of Palestine, just as the pine tree is emblematic of Badenoch and Strathspey. As part of the systematic erasure of Palestinian life by the Israeli occupation, olive trees have been uprooted and replaced with non-native pines. The tree that symbolises natural abundance in our own region actually represents erasure and colonisation to Palestinians.
Contact:
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To reassure, The Olive and the Pine is completely unaffiliated politically and includes members of various (and no) faiths. This is a celebration of Palestinian culture and a way of showing a little support to those in extraordinary circumstances.
Also check out other Arts events in Aviemore, Entertainment events in Aviemore, Nonprofit events in Aviemore.
