ABOUT US
A Little Bit About Us & What We Do.
THE FOUNDERS
We, Emma and Amy, are the founders of The Selkie Collective. We met at a local Gaelic playgroup, and from there our relationship grew over the years. We found that we share similar beliefs on many women's issues, and we also both have a strong passion for the environment. Particularly in helping to preserve the beautiful natural landscape in which we live.
We decided to start The Selkie Collective so that we could provide our community with the much needed sustainable goods that we ourselves endlessly searched for. Alongside that we were conscious of the need to reduce waste on the island, providing refill foods and household & body products was the natural choice.
From the very beginning of The Selkie Collective we always knew that we wanted to provide supportive spaces for women in our community. We run many events throughout the year that seek to offer rejuvenating spaces for women. We believe that women empowering each other and providing wellbeing support can only help to uplift our community.
THE SELKIE COLLECTIVE
The Selkie Collective is an eco conscious shop and community resource based on the Isle of Skye in the North West of Scotland. We aim to provide our local community with products, information, events and resources, which all have the environment and women’s health & wellbeing in mind. We have a passion for striving to take care of this beautiful planet and making it easier to make more sustainable choices, so that we can protect the environment for generations to come.
We use the words Eco & Zero Waste as umbrella terms to help those looking for the types of things we sell to find us. However, we feel that it's important to say that we understand that being completely environmentally "clean" or achieving "zero waste" isn't really possible these days. There are so many perspectives you can look from when buying a product or using a shop - air-miles, locally produced, organic, ethical, social, financial, plastic v's cardboard, compostable v's degradable, the list goes on!
We aren't perfect, but what we hope is that our shop is a place that we can work together to find ways that we can all be more sustainable and provide products that are useful.
SELKIE MYTHOLOGY
In Scottish mythology, selkie folk meaning "seal folk" are mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin.
When searching for what connects us in place and purpose, we felt that the idea of the selkie women coming onto the land and shedding their skin, giving into the desire of wanting to have freedom over their bodies to dance and sing, really resonated with us as women. Combined with our passion for the environment and want to do what we can to learn, grow, and work with others in our community, we felt that the Selkie encompassed our aim to support and nurture both women within our community and the natural environment, where our shared humanity exists.