Cornish Young People Host Breton Teens At Tehidy Camp

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12 Cornish young people played host to 12 of their Breton peers over a 10-day camp at Tehidy Woods recently.

The 24 young people, led by Breton and Cornish youth workers, shared their cultures and languages during the camp, which was organised and run jointly by Kowethas (the Cornish Language Fellowship) and their Breton sister cultural organisation, UBAPAR.

The aim of the camp, a pilot project funded by the EU-funded ERASMUS programme, was to enable the young people, all aged between 13 and 16 years of age, to explore the cultural and linguistic links between our two Celtic nations and to identify and develop opportunities to build relationships and understandings that they would be able to build into their future lives, both here in Cornwall as well as in Brittany.

The young people visited iconic Cornish places like St Michaels Mount, the Minack Theatre and Cornwall's world renowned mining heritage. They tried their hand at Cornish wrestling, pasty and crepe making and wild food foraging. Throughout the camp the young people also shared learning of their Celtic languages and cooperated in lessons and activities together.

Brian Rogers, one of the Cornish leader team, said: “I’ve been really pleased about how well both groups of young people bonded and worked together during the camp. Our Cornish young people learnt so much abouttheir own language and culture by living with their Breton peers, for whom their culture is much more to the forefront of their lives than our own Cornish youngsters.”

The camp was a pilot event and it is hoped that a return visit for our young people to Brittany next summer will be possible. This will, hope Kowethas and UBAPAR, build on existing inter-Celtic links and even create new ones.

Contact: Loveday Jenkin

Tel: 07718 763566

email: letjenkin@cornwall.gov.uk

UPABAR (Brittany)

Contact: Awena Gourlay

email: awena.gourlay@gmail.com

Photographs: some of the art work produced by the young people