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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, JuNE 1, 2019
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Julie Brown
Isle of Skye fishery in Scotland.
Cultural cousins on different seas
Professor finds maritime culture similarities in Scotland, Astoria
By JULIE BROWN
For The Astorian
I
was sitting in a brew pub listening to
fiddle and banjo. The people around
me—wearing plaid flannel shirts and
jeans—were enjoying the small-craft
beer and lively music. The space was a
converted industrial building, complete
with open-beamed ceilings and stained
cement floors. Listening in to conver-
sations around me, I heard the worried
talk of fishermen and heated discus-
sions about land-use planning along the
river. I could have been in Astoria, Ore-
gon, but I wasn’t—I was in Inverness,
Scotland, beginning my one-month
appointed stint teaching Maritime Cul-
ture at the University of the Highlands
and Islands.
Our connection to this part of the
world is more than just tartan flannel.
As I toured around the Scottish High-
lands and islands, digging into archives
and talking with as many old-tim-
ers as I could find, interesting parallels
jumped out at me between our part of
the world—the mouth of the Columbia
River—and theirs.
I visited classrooms and shared sto-
ries about the Chinook Indians, about
how important the water was to their
way of life. I explained to them how
Astoria’s indigenous people based an
entire way of life on the water—trans-
portation by canoe, diet based on local
seafood and even mythology and reli-
gion heavily reliant on the wise salmon
gods. I learned that the early people of
Scotland—the Picts—had a similar rela-
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An English press gang.
tionship to the landscape and its ani-
mals. An early Pictish drawing showed
a boat shaped much like a canoe. Pic-
tish petroglyphs prominently featured
salmon, and their myths included stories
based on “the wisdom of the salmon.”
Some of the earliest “newcomers”
to move to Astoria were Scandinavians
who brought their culture with them and
from it re-created many strong tradi-
tions based on their relationship to boats
and fishing. The same was true in Scot-
land—Vikings from Norway landed at
the Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands
and all along the north and east coast-
lines of the Scottish Highlands, bringing
See Scotland, Page B2
Julie Brown
Isle of Skye fishing boat in Scotland.
Julie Brown
Professor Julie Brown’s halibut catch.