SKALI Gudja; A communal effort in preserving the character of a traditional Maltese Village

Country
Malta
Organization name
SKALI Gudja
Storyteller
Fabio
Share:
Overview
Gudja is a historic and picturesque village in the south-east of Malta, listed as one of ten existing rural parishes in Malta. In the past, Gudja was known as Birmiftuħ, and covered a vast geographical area. The history of Gudja is intertwined with the traditions and occurrences of its people. The people of Gudja have been involved in many national occurrences, from stopping raid attempts, designing cities and WW2 military activity due to its vicinity to the airstrips. Unfortunately, Gudja is facing a number of threats to its charming character. Development pressure is slowly changing the landscapes of the village whilst the high demand for properties have inflated property costs, slowly bringing about a gentrification effect. This is bringing about changes to its micro-culture and character. This is what brough 10 young individuals together willing to work to safeguard Gudja’s heritage and share its identity with residents and beyond. The voluntary organisation, SKALI Gudja was born, focused towards safeguarding the intangible heritage of the village, whilst promoting good practises in cultural and natural heritage. SKALI Gudja’s official launch occurred in October 2020, with its first event being the EHD event of 2020 'A Punic Discovery'. It immediately leaped into a number of communal micro-projects, promoting and documenting Gudja's culture and heritage, from promoting traditional facades and sharing knowledge on local vegetation and niches amongst others. An Important project aimed towards safeguarding intangible heritage, publishing family nicknames (very popular in Malta) and notes on who they were and where they lived. After its success, SKALI Gudja launched a second project on intangible heritage, sharing curiosities on Gudja in video format and introduced events to collect stories from residents, whilst more and more people are constantly joining the oragnisation, lending a help to expand its work.

It was January 2020, when the founding members of SAKLI Gudja elected the first committee. For the past couple of months, the first 10 members had been discussing a way to promote the identity of their home town, Gudja; one of the last remaining villages in Malta with a surviving traditional character. The initial references to this village date to the early 15th century, when Bishop Demello listed it as one of ten existing rural parishes in Malta. At that time, Gudja was known as Birmiftuħ, and it covered a vast geographical area. In the 16th and 17th century, 6 villages which formed part of Birmiftuħ became their own parishes (with a 7th becoming a parish in the early 20th century) and so, the parish of Birmiftuħ moved to a new church in the village of Gudja. Later, with the introduction of the local councils in Malta, Gudja was also officially recognised as a locality. The history of Gudja is intertwined with the traditions and occurrences of its people. As the direct heir of a once vast parish covering most of the south of Malta, Gudja always had a distinct identity a strong local culture, together with plenty of history and heritage. Cultural activity in the village goes back thousands of years, as evidenced by the Punic tombs discovered in the mid-20th century in Gudja’s main square. Beyond the Classical times, Gudja grew throughout the Medieval and Early Modern times, with quite a few built heritage surviving to this day. But beyond this tangible culture, Gudja has a long-standing presence in the Maltese history. The people of Gudja were a key force in the medieval/early modern military force known as the Dejma, stopping multiple raids originating from the south-eastern bays, were always proactive in building places of worship and palaces, whilst producing key figures like Girolamo Cassar, who were involved in national-scale projects, such as the building of the capital city, Valletta. But the people of Gudja have also suffered at times, such as during the WW2, when due to their vicinity to the airstrips, the people of Gudja were often caught in the middle of raids and drills. Unfortunately, in the recent years, Gudja is facing a number of threats to its charming character, to which many towns and villages before it fell victim. Being a small state, development pressure in Malta has been very high in the last years. Gudja is facing a slow but constant change in the landscapes of the village, whilst the high demand for properties have inflated property costs, slowly bringing about a gentrification effect, after centuries of generation after generation choosing to stay in the village they were brough up in. Unfortunately, such circumstances have led to a dilution of local identity and culture, which whilst not intrinsically a bad thing, created a desire to document and disseminate traditions and culture before they are lost forever. This desire to safeguard history and identity was what brought 10 young people together in the last months of 2019, and what would have eventually gave birth to a voluntary organisation, focused towards safeguarding the intangible heritage of the village, whilst promoting good practises in cultural and natural heritage. This is the story of that organisation. The story of why the organisation came in existence, and how it grew exponentially in a couple of years. The EHD event of 2020 'A Punic Discovery', a little over 2 years ago, was the first time SKALI Gudja went public, launching the organisation itself, and bringing recently discovered Punic finds home, which were exhibited during the event, held at the medieval chapel of Birmiftuħ. Since then, SKALI Gudja has faced the hardships of Covid-19, greatly limiting its events and halting any kind of physical interaction with the resident, for whom it was set up. This sprouted a number of digital series on the social medias of the organisations, reaching the residents in a virtual manner. The first was a communal micro-project, documenting traditional facades of Gudja's Streetscape, under the title of ‘BIEBuGĦATBA’. This series came out during pandemic times, and had a wonderful response. For the second digi-series, SKALI Gudja took a green approach, and focused on local vegetation through ‘Ir-Rokna il-Ħadra’. For the lent of 2022, the series ‘Il-Kurċifiss’ shared with the public photos of old crucifixes from a local collection, and in February 2023 launched yet another project, ‘Minn Qalb in-Niċċa’, taking a look at niches in the streets of Gudja whilst digging up historical information on each one. In parallel to the Cultural Heritage and Natural series, ‘Nafhek b'Laqmek’ was the first published by the organisation, brushing on the intangible heritage of the locality, where whilst working with a local researcher SKALI Gudja published several family nicknames (very popular in Malta) as well a few notes on who they were and where they lived. After its success, the organisation launched another intangible series in 2023, ‘Kont Taf Li?’, sharing curiosities on Gudja, this time in video format. But the digi-series were not all. The Organisation has been organising varied events since when the restrictions were lifted. ‘Dak li Writna’ was a series of discussions in collaboration with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, discussing various topics on the occasion of the 2021 EHD. SKALI Gudja is organising regular cultural and green walks, ‘Każinati’ during village feasts going from one band club to the other, re-enactments and even traditional food stalls amongst others. Today, the Organisation grew to over 70 members, it is embarking on a long-term project of documenting intangible heritage. In 2023, the Organisation organised two events with the aim of talking to residents. They were asked to recall stories from their child hoods or pass down oral traditions, whilst SKALI Gudja took notes and voice recorded some. This project, when launched, will be titled ‘Nismagħhom Jgħidu’ (I hear them say), which aims to record the older generation of Gudja as they discus their childhood, the hardship of simpler times and their opinion of modern Gudja.

European Dimension
The European Heritage Strategy for the 21st Century of the Council of Europe, issued three recommendation pillars; Social Component, Territorial and Economic Development and Knowledge and Education. The story of SKALI Gudja, a 21st Century NGO was based on these three pillars since its inception. This is a story of a community led project, where residents formed a platform for their home village and are engaging ever more residents by means of events and series. Whilst community engagement is one of the main aim of the organisation, the need for such a project to exist derives from a lack of sustainable development in the country, and an urge to promote good planning, as suggested in the second pillar, whilst always informing the public, supporting research and educating the younger generations as per the third pillar. The SKALI Gudja story takes on board all three CoE suggestions for the 21st Century. As a small organisation from a small village in a country that maps often skip, one can easily overlook Gudja. But as one of the Europe’s island states, Malta brings a unique addition to Europe’s culture, and one is very fragile. The villages of Malta were once home to traditional trades, quaint establishments and day to day activities of the locals, but this is slowly being lost. That is why projects suck as SKALI Gudja are of European importance. It is difficult to hold big activities in such small villages, thus the organisation’s target is a smaller one, but still impactful scale. The Census of 2021 indicated that the second most common age-group is actually a younger one (25-35) than expected, confirming the usefulness of social media in disseminating data.