Wej Paradice Proud to be Chieftain

Dr Wej Paradice AM, former head of the Hunter Valley Research Foundation will be the chieftain at Aberdeen Highland Games tomorrow.

Wej Paradice on the beach where St Columbia arrived on the Isle of Iona, Scotland from Ireland.

Wej grew up in Scone and his family maintain a strong connection to Scotland, his father Dr John Paradice grew up listening to his Scottish grandmother reading him bedtime stories in gaelic and during University Wej lived and studies in Scotland.

“My grandmother is of Scottish heritage and came out to Australia in the early 1920’s, she was a Houston and her mother was a Milne who came from Scotland and we still have cousins who live in Scotland,” said Dr Paradice.

“We go back to our fourth great grandfather who used to live in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and I went back as a student when I won an overseas scholarship in 1973 and it was a great opportunity to visit relatives in Kirkcudbright and since then we’ve been back and we’ve visited the town of Scone and Scone palace and Aberdeen of course,” he said.

“I like the traditions of Scotland and the history of the area and it is a commonality throughout the world, as the Scots say their greatest export is their people and whether you go to Canada or the US or anywhere in the Commonwealth there are Scottish descendants,” he said.

“My father is very proud of his Scottish heritage and his grandmother lived with them when they first moved out to Australia and his grandmother still spoke gaelic and would talk to him in gaelic, so it was quite a part of his upbringing,” he said.

“On St Andrews’ night that they used to have in Scone my mother had the duty of making the haggis from scratch so I’ve seen it all,” he said.

Wej said he enjoys the Games which fosters the areas connection to Scotland and admires the work Charles Cooke and the committee have done to build such a successful event for the region.

“The Upper Hunter has a very strong Scottish connection with the names of the towns and a lot of early settlers came from Scotland,” said Wej.

“If you haven’t been to the Games come along and enjoy the day the kaylee at night with Scottish dancing is a lot of fun, the music and the athletic events are great be it throwing the caber or lifting the stones it is a great day,” he said.

“It is certainly something that brings a lot of people to the Upper Hunter and it is a great initiative to link that Scottish heritage with the Upper Hunter,” Wej Paradice said.