Màiri is an educator, musician and project coordinator who has nurtured a life-long love and appreciation for the Gaelic language and culture. Growing up in Scotland, Gaelic always felt a part of her identity and it has brought her the greatest gifts of community, creativity, travel, employment and friendship. Through the support and generosity of numerous teachers, mentors, family and friends, Gaelic has steered Màiri’s life path to the Hebrides, to Ireland, and now to Nova Scotia. She is grateful to live in Unama’ki (Cape Breton), land which has been with the Mi’kmaw people for time immemorial.

Màiri holds an undergraduate MA and postgraduate MSc in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh and for the last seven years has taught Gaelic language and culture courses at St Francis Xavier University. She is also a regular tutor at Colaisde na Gàidhlig | Gaelic College for short courses, youth mentorship program Na Gaisgich Òga, and the month-long immersion course, An Cùrsa Bogaidh. She loves teaching Gaelic enthusiasts of all ages and feels honoured to be a part of any learner’s journey as they reclaim their language and/or find belonging and fulfilment in the culture.

As a Gaelic singer, step dancer and harpist, Màiri has taught and performed extensively in Europe and North America. She recorded and toured as lead vocalist and step dancer in the Gaelic trad group Fàrsan, and continues to play and teach regularly at home and abroad. For five years she has also worked as Project Manager/Coordinator for the Cainnt is Ceathramhan project, cataloguing, transcribing and improving access to the Gaelic folklore of Nova Scotia.

Màiri strives to bring energy, warmth and enthusiasm with her wherever she goes. She comes alive in nature, through creative expression and collaboration, and through learning, hosting and advocacy work. She is deeply committed to cultural healing and community building and loves visiting elders to learn from their store of songs, stories and cultural wisdom. She feels fortunate to have been mentored by several whose kindness, knowledge and hospitality provide deep and abiding examples of how to live in right relationship with others and the earth. 

It was the vision of living these values with others every day that first drew Màiri to the idea of Freumh is Fàs. Now, even before its realisation in tangible form on the land, the community is giving her courage, inspiration and hope for the future of Gaelic and our ability to become good ancestors for the generations to come.

Eamag is as rooted as one can be in Gleann nam Màgan “Glen of the Frogs” | Ainslie Glen, Inverness County, with a MacKinnon and MacLellan heritage going back to the Island of Muck and Morar. She was drawn in her youth to Gaelic language and culture and has taken advantage of every opportunity since to explore and learn. She has a Celtic Studies and Bachelor of Education Degree from St. Francis Xavier University and has focused on community-based education. As a Gàidhlig singer and teacher, Emily has done a tremendous amount of work for Gàidhlig Nova Scotia. A hard-working, well-organized self-starter, Emily began the Na Gaisgich Òga program at Colaisde na Gàidhlig and was the founding teacher at Taigh Sgoile na Drochaide. She was language consultant in the youth musical production Brìgh, fieldworker for the An Drochaid Eadarainn website, and was instrumental in getting Gaelic playgroups going for parents and children in Inverness county. She co-organized community events, such as Finlay MacLeod’s Total Immersion Plus (TIP) training and A’ Togail na Gàidhlig, a monthlong Gaelic immersion program for adults. In 2010 she lived in Carmen MacArthur’s Gaelic-only house in Southwest Margaree, which included many Gaelic weekends with peers, lively GaB classes and visiting special elders up the road. She owes her language and cultural fluency to that special time, and to community programs such as Gàidhlig aig Baile classes and working with elders in the Bun is Bàrr mentorship program. She is a Gaels Jammer alumna and has spent the last four years on a personal healing journey. Emily enjoys opportunities to slow down, spend time visiting friends, and speaking Gaelic, especially alongside her two children, Archie and Rosie. Emily was drawn to the Freumh is Fàs project as she wants to live and work with the land in community with other like-minded individuals. 

Màiri holds an undergraduate MA and postgraduate MSc in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh and for the last seven years has taught Gaelic language and culture courses at St Francis Xavier University. She is also a regular tutor at Colaisde na Gàidhlig | Gaelic College for short courses, youth mentorship program Na Gaisgich Òga, and the month-long immersion course, An Cùrsa Bogaidh. She loves teaching Gaelic enthusiasts of all ages and feels honoured to be a part of any learner’s journey as they reclaim their language and/or find belonging and fulfilment in the culture.

As a Gaelic singer, step dancer and harpist, Màiri has taught and performed extensively in Europe and North America. She recorded and toured as lead vocalist and step dancer in the Gaelic trad group Fàrsan, and continues to play and teach regularly at home and abroad. For five years she has also worked as Project Manager/Coordinator for the Cainnt is Ceathramhan project, cataloguing, transcribing and improving access to the Gaelic folklore of Nova Scotia.

Màiri strives to bring energy, warmth and enthusiasm with her wherever she goes. She comes alive in nature, through creative expression and collaboration, and through learning, hosting and advocacy work. She is deeply committed to cultural healing and community building and loves visiting elders to learn from their store of songs, stories and cultural wisdom. She feels fortunate to have been mentored by several whose kindness, knowledge and hospitality provide deep and abiding examples of how to live in right relationship with others and the earth. 

It was the vision of living these values with others every day that first drew Màiri to the idea of Freumh is Fàs. Now, even before its realisation in tangible form on the land, the community is giving her courage, inspiration and hope for the future of Gaelic and our ability to become good ancestors for the generations to come.

Amber is a creative, loving soul who started her career in nursing but has largely stepped away from the traditional role and is in transition in her life in many ways. Thinking back to childhood, Amber remembers feeling so connected to and curious about her grandfather and was in awe that he could speak Gàidhlig, and wishing so much to know it too. She still doesn't have the ability to speak Gàidhlig and it's been difficult in many ways to cultivate the safety, opportunity, and confidence to learn the language. She is invested in seeking out, creating, and diving into spaces where healing is possible, for herself, the ones before her, and the ones after her. 

Grief, death, and dying have become a real area of passion for Amber and she is slowly exploring and unfurling how that is deeply connected to her culture, her purpose, and desire to allow grief to be present, acknowledged, and witnessed in our everyday lives.  She is learning to be a bridge builder of what was known and passed down o glùin gu glùin | from knee to knee and then largely forgotten, to what we can learn, remember, and hold onto and reimagine a way forward in community where death is honored and sacred, and not completely avoided.

Amber also loves DIY projects, crafting, cuddling up with her pup, and taking on weird and wonderful projects. She longs to feel more connected in community and committed to figuring out different and creative ways to help make that happen.

Òmar is a passionate, fiery, and gentle soul who has been working toward her own healing and her Gàidhlig community’s healing from colonization for the past 15 years. She believes deeply that the reclamation of ones ancestral language and culture have the power to transform and connect us to ourselves, one another, our ancestors, the earth and the greater web of life. As a fluent Gaelic speaker Amber teaches the language and traditional cultural practices both in community and at Baile Nan Gàidheal | Highland Village Museum to curious learners of all ages. 

Amber holds great hope in our ability to heal from past trauma, trusting that as we heal ourselves we heal the world. She is profoundly committed to her own healing, her daughter, her community, the earth, cultural and artistic expression, play, laughter, movement and dance.

It’s in facilitated group work that Amber really comes alive and shines. She has a remarkable ability to hold space for what’s present, to be with and coach people as they face some of their most difficult emotions while she remains open, compassionate and truthful. It is thanks to having had the privilege of attending, organizing and facilitating YES! Jams all over the world with amazing mentours that Amber has found these gifts within her. This includes eight Gaels Jams across Cape Breton. She is also a trained Dialogue for Peaceful Change facilitator. 

Amber also works with pairs and on-on-one with individuals encouraging them to be curious, to feel, heal and transform into a felt sense of their most whole selves. She does this through conversation, body work and shamanic practices and rituals which she learned from her teacher and friend Nova Porier over the past five years. 

Amber holds a 500 hour yoga certification from Rishikesh, India, where she spent four months with her daughter Sadie learning and engaging in the local and international community. That same year Amber learned how to weave on the backstrap loom from a local Indigenous woman in the mountains of a Mexican village in Oaxaca. She now weaves at home on a floor loom loving the metaphorical connections between weaving natural fabrics together and weaving community and life. She also knits, spins and felts wool and is learning about animal hide work. 

Amber also holds a Political Science degree from Cape Breton University where she was able to combine her many passions focusing on social justice. She is also a fluent Spanish speaker and holds a special place in her heart for Latin American culture, people and landscapes. She has travelled extensively around the world and finds connection and fellowship wherever she goes. Amber is more recently building connections between Mi’kmaq and Gaels noticing our similarities and celebrating our uniqueness to forge peace, friendship and collective resilience. 

Her roots reach through the Atlantic ocean all the way to the Isles of Lewis, Harris and North Uist and more recently to the North Shore of Cape Breton where her people settled seven generations ago. She is 37 years old and lives in Sydney, Mi’kma’ki with her 16 year old daughter Sadie and her partner Alex.