The Legacy
The planned legacy dimensions include a website, education pack, television content, DVD and the setting up of a St Kilda Centre based in the Outer Hebrides. The islands of St Kilda resonate strongly with us, on many levels.
The St Kildans sustained a viable society for 3,000 years until well into the 20th century. Their story is a reminder of how we once lived and offers us a sense of how it feels to belong to a long-established, deeply-rooted community.
It is also a stark reminder of the vulnerability of indigenous people and culture when confronted by the modern industrial world. The delicate balance between man and nature is easily lost and for the St Kildans this loss meant exodus and the extinction of a unique way of life. Each such extinction diminishes our common humanity and touches a common chord.
The life and death of St Kilda has a new significance in the 21st century. The universal themes of tradition versus modernity, globalisation, migration and diminishing cultural diversity echo in the European collective memory.