My first thought when I saw the witch mural in Pittenweem was dismay.
It’s the same thing I always think when we see pictures of witches portrayed in that way. Is it not about time we moved beyond the trope of the old crone with the warty nose?
Because, apart from anything else, it’s not historically accurate.
All sorts of people were accused of being witches in Scotland. They didn’t dress like Halloween characters, or magical pagan goddesses.
They were just ordinary people.
And that’s the whole basis for the Witches of Scotland campaign. To educate people and to ask them to think about the wrongs that were done.
They weren’t magical. They weren’t evil. And they weren’t witches. They were just people like you and me.
And so to see something like that on a big wall – it’s just really disappointing.
Fife town’s dark role in witches of Scotland story
I can see how some people will have read about the complaint from the council, and their knee-jerk reaction will have been ‘Oh here comes the woke squad again… You can’t do anything these days… People are so sensitive… Everybody’s offended’.
But it’s not that. We’re just asking people to be a bit more thoughtful.
There’s direct history with the witch trials in Pittenweem.
One local woman, Janet Cornfoot, was actually killed by a lynch mob (normally ‘justice’ was done by the courts).
There will still be people living locally who have family connections to that time. And so Pittenweem, of all places, is probably somewhere this should be handled with a bit of sensitivity.
And I’m not criticising the people of Pittenweem, or the artist, here.
The quality of the art is great. The artist is obviously very talented. And the people who commissioned the mural probably just wanted something splashy on the side of their building.
I totally get that. I love public art. There’s a recent mural in Forfar, which was done really thoughtfully. There is a way to tell the story of the witches of Scotland that is accurate without being po-faced.
But we still have a lot of work to do in Scotland to think about our past, to come to terms with it.
Witches of Scotland campaign making progress
We need to know who we are to have a clear idea of where we’re going. And we strongly believe that if you don’t understand the bad things that happened in the past they might happen again.
The Witches of Scotland campaign was set up to secure an apology, a pardon and a memorial to the thousands of people who were accused and convicted under the Witchcraft Act from 1563-1736.
The Witches of Scotland campaign is committed to bringing together groups working across Scotland and indeed, internationally, to realise the aims of our campaign. @witchesofscotl1 /1
— @witchesofscotland (@witchesofscotl1) May 2, 2023
We have had an apology, from Nicola Sturgeon in March 2022.
The pardon is going through the Scottish Parliament. The MSP Natalie Don introduced a private members bill before she was promoted to the cabinet, so we are just waiting for someone else to take it on.
And we’re hoping to hold an online event soon so that all the different community groups who have been working with us can have a chat about what the next steps might be.
The responses to the consultation have been really positive. There is an appetite for a memorial. Just not the kind we’ve seen in Pittenweem.
The witch trials were a terrible thing that happened in Scotland’s past. It would be good to think we could act like grown-ups about it now.
Dr Zoe Venditozzi is a Fife-based writer and teacher, who leads the Witches of Scotland campaign with Claire Mitchell QC. The pair also co-host the Witches of Scotland podcast.
Conversation