![]() ![]() “I started playing drums at the age of two,” he says. Now a film, TV and music star, his first foray into the arts was in Kincardine, Ontario, learning pipe band drumming starting in 2001 as one of very few Black participants in the pipe band arts. The experience A very young Kolton Stewart gets a guest spot with the Grade 1 78th Fraser Highlanders at the World Pipe Band Championships. If you’re interested in that, we invite you to read on. Only by asking questions, can we get the answers and the information we need to make better decisions. Finding Black pipers and drummers who are willing to speak about their experiences is much harder.Īs with other sensitive topics we’ve tackled, our intention is enlightenment and understanding by having at times tough, but necessary, conversations into the open. It’s a difficult challenge, and it can take time since we can’t alter the demographic complexion of employees, students, members overnight.īut what are we doing to facilitate such change?įinding Black pipers and drummers is difficult enough. If I start this hobby, join that company, go to that school, will I feel that I belong? Are there people like me? could be the first question asked implicitly and tacitly in the mind. The first step to joining is to feel welcomed. There are no barriers, we will say, and they’re free to learn just as much as the next person. The vast majority of us will welcome anyone – male, female, white, Black, Asian, indigenous – who wants to learn the pipes or drum. One look at our world, and we see an almost all-white landscape. Many hope that the struggles will be a great reckoning for countries, businesses, associations and even hobbies to look inward to consider both blatant and subtle aggressions and micro-aggressions designed intentionally or subconsciously to keep others out. Peaceful protests often became violent altercations. While the USA has significant problems, no country is truly free from racist practices or attitudes, whether overt or subliminal. The number of females older than 30 in pipe bands is commensurately smaller.Īppalling incidents against Black citizens in the United States have placed a world spotlight on racism. Many females who participate are younger, and lose interest or replace the time with higher-priority needs, and so many tend to drop away. Women comprise only about 25% of pipers and drummers. Until the last decade, women weren’t allowed to be members of the Royal Scottish Pipers Society. Until 1976, female pipers weren’t allowed to compete at many of the major competitions in the UK. ![]() ![]() Until about 1970, women, with rare exceptions, were relegated to “Ladies” and “Girls” bands. In these pages, we have often discussed the plight and the advent of females in piping and drumming. While the pipe band arts emanated from the British military, which in turn was up until only a few decades ago was pretty much all-white and all-male, civilian pipe bands have become more diverse. Most of us, we can assume, think of the piping and drumming world as a welcoming and all-inclusive place, and for the most part, it is. Is piping and drumming a welcome place for Black players? – Part 1 ![]()
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