Meet Rosie Robertson of the Calton Heritage and Learning Centre

Glasgow Conversations

Meet Rosie Robertson, manager of the Calton Heritage and Learning Centre. In this interview, you'll hear a lot about the Calton, an area of Glasgow even some of us living in the city either have never heard of or at least think about very little. Rosie lives and works there. She talks with passion and integrity about its proud working class history, how the identity of those living there has been lost over the years in the face of lazy ignorance and indoctrination.
She explains why people are more than the labels given to them, and what happens when those labels are thrown endlessly in their face. She talks emotionally about hope; how the guidance she received when she was younger shaped her ultimately into an inspiration for her son; how the work carried out every day in the centre, and by its partners and like-minded local organisations, encourages, guides and inspires those in the community who otherwise might have had no direction other than to the bottom rung of the ladder.
I, and a great many others in Glasgow, will never really appreciate the deep importance of the work people like Rosie do in the community. We live in a city, however, that's ignored the Calton for generations. So listening to this will give you a flavour of consequence, but also of hope that with a little more work, a little less ignorance, the cultural identity and destiny of human beings living merely in another postcode from you or I might be rebuilt and preserved.