#aberfan

But talking about the English colonisation of Wales is important, in the UK anyway. And I’m fed up of it being put down or eye rolled or ridiculed.

Does the colonisation of our country absolve us of guilt in the colonisation of basically the rest of the world? No. Obviously not, dipshit. But why can’t I bring the conversation up without being told that I’m just trying to make excuses? Is it important within this conversation? Yes. But it’s not the aspect of the conversation I’m focusing on.

I’m not trying to play the oppression card here, that would be ridiculous. When I talk about Wales being colonised I’m not saying I, a white Welsh person am oppressed because of that fact. Even so far as English xenophobia (towards Welsh people) (which does exist… somehow… they’re complete hypocrites) that’s not what I’m getting at.

What I am getting at is that within the UK, to discuss Welsh politics, Welsh independence, the Welsh language is quite often to be ridiculed. The amount of jokes I have had thrown in my face because we have Welsh on our road signs or because we’re taught Welsh in school “but no one speaks it!”

There’s a reason for that. The English beat it out of us for generations, in 1967 we had the Welsh Language Act which was literally the first step that allowed us to use Welsh in legal proceedings. And I feel guilt and shame that I can’t speak Welsh. I feel as though I’m not Welsh enough because of it. That’s not my fault though, is it?

Bring any of this up to an English person (generally) and they put you down for it, it’s ridiculous, I’m an idiot, Welsh is just a scramble of consonants anyway, Wales would go down the drain without the union, sheep shagger, shithole etc etc

The odd thing is see. I’ve been told so many times that Wales is a leech, we take take take from England and give next to nothing back, we’ve no right to complain, forget Aberfan, forget Capel Celyn, ignore the current controversy around HS2 - we leech off England and we should be damn grateful that they have allowed us to be in the mere presence of this Union.

And yet it’s always these people who are staunchly against Welsh independence. Turns out we can keep leeching. If we just shut up about the way that England - Westminster - continues to mistreat us as a country.

And boy if you dare to call it Cymru, well you might as well have shit down their throats. Never mind the fact that the name Wales is an English given name meaning “foreigner” or “stranger” lest we be at home in our own damn country.

Regardless of your stance on the union and Welsh independence, England continues to mistreat us as a country and then gaslight us into believing we should be grovelling on our hands and knees thanking them - the amount of people I’ve seen be genuinely, purely nasty about it too is astonishing.

But then there’s Americans too who clearly don’t know shit about what they’re talking about who butt in telling me and other Welsh people that our politics, culture, language is now irrelevant and that we need to shut up because we contributed to colonialism. Babe I know, it’s awful but again, I’m not excusing it. At all. But where do you think England starting colonising first.

On the 21st of October 1966, the mining village of Aberfan were suddenly robbed of an entire generation.

For decades, waste from the Merthyr Vale Colliery had been dumped on the hills above Aberfan, forming towering coal tips that loomed over the village. Despite repeated warnings from locals about the instability of these waste piles, especially one that sat on a natural spring, the National Coal Board ignored the risks. The autumn of 1966 brought weeks of heavy rain, saturating the tip and setting the stage for disaster.

That morning the children of Pantglas Junior School were excitedly looking forward to their half-day before the school holidays. As they finished singing All Things Bright and Beautiful, a deafening roar shattered the morning calm. In that split second, it felt as if time itself froze

For years, waste from the local coal mine had been piled high on the hillside above the village, despite warnings that it was unstable. Heavy rain had turned the tip into a ticking time bomb, and when it finally gave way, there was no time to escape

A landslide of 1.4 million cubic feet of coal waste came crashing down the mountain, burying the school and nearby homes. 144 lives were lost, 116 of them children.

Rescuers, many of them parents, clawed through the debris with bare hands, but the weight of the sludge left little hope. Rescuers would later find a clock stopped at 9:15

The disaster was entirely preventable. The coal tip had been built on ground that was known to be unstable, and despite warnings from villagers and workers, nothing was done. When the inquiry concluded, full blame was placed on the National Coal Board and several of its officials, but no one was ever prosecuted

And yet, nearly 60 years later, we are still dealing with the dangers of abandoned coal tips. In November 2024, heavy rainfall caused a coal tip in Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent, to partially collapse, forcing dozens of residents to evacuate. Many locals didn’t even know the tip was there until disaster struck

There are currently 2,573 disused coal tips in Wales, with 360 considered high-risk. Despite the clear danger, efforts to manage them have been slow, and residents fear history could repeat itself

In response to growing concerns, the Welsh government has proposed creating a Disused Tips Authority to oversee the safety of these sites, but for those living in their shadow, action can't come soon enough

Aberfan’s pain is still raw, and its warnings remain urgent. We cannot afford to forget.

the way it opens showing the children coming home from school the day before the disaster and spending the evening just being children. having no idea what’s going to happen to them the next day.

and the way the last shots of the kids are them screaming in fear hiding under the tables.

Welsh word that means 'longing for a place or state of being to which there is no return'.

First heard by author Lucy Easthope when researching the Aberfan tragedy in Wales in which 144 people after a colliery spoil tip collapsed.