Professor Aaron offers her “survival gene” theory as an
explanation for a range of historical comebacks by Wales,
ranging from the defeat of Llywelyn at Cilmeri in 1282 (
leading to a golden age of Welsh poetry), through greater
integration with England in the 17th and 18th centuries
(out of which came the Nonconformist revolution in Wales)
to various last minute Welsh rugby victories,and finally
the hair’s breadth vote in favour of devolution. The threat
to Welsh identity in the years immediately before
the referendum had been the Thatcher government years, which
had seen the disappearance of the bulk of the Welsh coal
industry and with it a way of life in the Welsh valleys.
Significantly, Dr. Aaron notes, the greatest rise in the
numbers of Yes voters between 1979 and 1997 occurred in
the south Wales valleys areas, which also recorded the
greatest growth in the numbers of Welsh speakers in the
2001 census.
Professor Aaron warns, however, that it is dangerous to live
from crisis to crisis, without any certainty that the necessary
resistant response will kick in the next time. “That creativity
which only appears to be released in Wales at a time of crisis
needs to be harnessed. One way of bringing this about might be
through disseminating more effectively the realisation that when
it comes to the survival of so numerically a tiny culture and
language base within a global economy, there is no respite from
the threat.”
She suggests Welsh people need to be more fully informed about
their own history and culture, in both languages. “A curious dual
culturalism is being forged in Wales. Those children who attend
Welsh-language schools are steeped in the culture and history of
Wales but, apart from some history lessons, students at English
language schools learn very little about the culture which was
created despite difficulties in the villages and townships in
which they were born.”
As in Scotland, she suggests, one text from Welsh writings in
English should be compulsory for all students taking English
literature at either GCSE or A level in Wales. The Welsh
curriculum should also give a more prominent place to
comparative studies of the struggles for survival of other
stateless nations and minority languages and cultures.
“The content of a Humanities syllabus in Wales, apart from the
specifically Welsh component, differs very little from its
English equivalent, fort all that Welsh needs are very different
from English ones. Wales simply apes England when it tries to
operate culturally at an international level. Why should it
not rather attempt to gain an international reputation as a
country that through long experience and concern has much to
contribute to world understanding of the processes of cultural
survival in extremis and can empathise with similar struggles
wherever they occur?”
For further information please contact John Osmond
(029 2057 3944 or johnosmond@iwa.org.uk)
or Rhys David (029 2057 3942 or rhysdavid@iwa.org.uk)
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