A team from Wales, with the help of a grant from the NPLD, recently spent time in Brittany and the Basque Country in order to study the feasibility of setting up a Welsh language version of the Basque relay race, Korrika and Breton Redadeg. The Korrika/Redadeg is a relay race where participants sponsor to run a kilometre of the route. Sponsors can include individuals, families, clubs, schools or businesses and the money raised goes towards strengthening the indigenous language of the participating countries. Similar races are also held in Galicia and Catalonia, and this year for the first time in Ireland.
Sion Jobbins, who aims to set up a similar event in Wales, said that he was very pleased with the visits, which had taught the team much. The team was impressed by the scale and enthusiasm of the event in the Basque Country, which regularly attracts over 600,000 participants, who together raise 2.3 million Euros towards teaching Basque to adults. The Breton Redadeg, inspired by the Basque Korrika, is now in its third year, with over 10, 000 people running a stretch of the almost 400 mile route, and half the money raised going to the schools network and half to other Breton language cultural bodies e.g. Breton local radio stations.
The group were interested to see how the race could be organised with minimal financial and political support in Brittany, with a view to establishing a Welsh equivalent. Sion Jobbins said that ‘The research work conducted in the Basque Country and Brittany gave me a strong indication of what is possible and what is not’, but is convinced that such an event is something the Welsh language community should hold. Its benefits include generating ‘intergenerational activity; cooperation between Welsh speakers, learners and non-Welsh speakers.’
His vision is for the ‘Rhedadeg’ to ‘be a general celebration of the Welsh language and its will to live and thrive’.
A grant from the NPLD enabled the study visit to go ahead; ‘I am very grateful to the Welsh Language Board for informing me of the NPLD grant and grateful for the grant given. The money covered my costs and part of the costs of the other participants.’