Crafting rituals of Connection
Music and storytelling are deeply intertwined in African culture, serving as a powerful, healing medium.
Our workshops with palliative care patients, led by master folklorist Chief Gift Amu and music therapist Bruce Armstrong from St Columbas Hospice Care, will create songs inspired by the theme of migration.
In African culture, music and storytelling are timeless, healing arts. These intimate workshops bring together palliative care patients and families to craft barn swallows and shape songs—both as collective expression and ritual, guiding them through some of the hardest times they may face.
Project deliverables
Artist Ed Harrison shares his creative journey & the backstory behind Wild Wings of Hope, which comes from a place of transforming grief & loss.
Chief Gift Amu will bring traditional African rhythms into the shared music sessions through participatory drumming.
Participants are invited to craft paper barn swallows individually, coming together as a group to create a shared flock– a mobile of hope.
of hope
Participants are invited to write personal ‘messages of hope’ to be added to community-created mobiles.
The Drumming Circles
African Sounds & Stories sessions brought together National Museum Scotland and St Columba’s Hospice Care communities through collaborative workshops delivered at both the museum and the hospice.
Participants from both communities attended, creating a shared creative space through craft and improvised music circles led by Ghanian storyteller Chief Gift Amu and St Columba’s Hospice Care music therapist Bruce Armstrong.
The Craft
Participants crafted barn swallows and swifts from paper — two migratory species that travel between Scotland and Ghana each year.
Through this simple act of making, the workshop became a vehicle for conversation: exploring biodiversity, interconnected ecosystems, and the shared journeys that link distant places.
Each participant took home their own papercut bird, alongside contributing a message of hope — sent onward to a partner hospice in South Africa as part of a growing cross-continental exchange.
The Messages of Hope
The Nessages were displayed at the hospice
