Abertridwr FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)     

Who are we?

We are a group of people trying to recreate the good bits of Medieval court life in Western Europe,

We meet for friendship and fun to share our love of all things medieval

Abertridwr is family friendly and caters for all age groups, from small children (accompanied by a parent), to our oldest member who is 66 years of age.

The SCA is open to anyone who is prepared to wear a pre 1600s costume,
and act as a lady or gentleman

What does Abertridwr mean?

Abertridwr is Welsh and it should be pronounced "Ab-Er-Tree-Doo"

We however pronounce it "Abba-Tree-Der".  :)

It is Welsh for "the meeting of three waters".

Why three waters?

Because our original geographic borders were the three rivers - the Swan, the Canning and Murray Rivers.
Now however, the southern lands from the Murray River up to Rowley Road have broken away to form the Shire of Dragon's Bay

There are of course a couple of suburbs in the North that don't exactly fit into this scenario and yet we claim them anyway.  These are the "contested lands" - which most importantly includes the suburbs of Manning and Wilson. As with everything in the Society, geography isn’t really important but the fact that some very wonderful people live in that area, make it a boon to own for either group.

Where are we?

Most of our activities are held at the Wandi Progress Association grounds, about 20 minutes drive from Fremantle, Rockingham or Armadale (which are our three main catchments)

Training and Arts and Science nights are focused around Fremantle (as that’s where the people who run them live).

Check out the calendar and lets have some medieval fun.

What is a Canton?

A Canton is the smallest group size within the Society for Creative Anachronism and takes its name from the Swiss cantons being the smallest governing body in the world.

The Canton of Abertridwr is a semi-autonomous sub-group of the Barony of Aneala (Western Australia) which in turn is a part of the Kingdom of Lochac (Australia & New Zealand)

Cantons need a minimum of 5 sustaining SCA members. They need a minimum of three officers - Seneschal, Reeve and one of a Marshall, an A&S Officer or a Constable.  Unlike Shires, Cantons still come under the auspices of their local Barony and their members still count towards Baronial numbers.

More information on the structure of the SCA can be found at http://www.sca.org/docs/pdf/govdocs.pdf
(Clicking on that link will open in a new browser tab or window, depending on your browser configuration)

How do I join?

You can contact any of the officers of the Canton. :) or check out the calendar and contact the steward, or just turn up to one of the regular meetings, where you will get a friendly welcome.

Why are we?

We've started this canton for a number of reasons. At our first informal meeting, we discussed the why's and wherefores of our existence and narrowed it down to the following reasons for being:

• in order to create a little local cultural diversity (SCA culture, that is).
• to decentralise our local SCA infrastructure a little
• to allow members to train as, and become, officers; "cut their teeth" as it were, on the less intimidating Canton positions.
• healthy competition (did someone mention "war"?).
• create some room for growth in the local SCA - through increased exposure, recruitment and by creating more support mechanisms for newcomers.
• its a good excuse for a War (has that been mentioned before?)
• nostalgia (for the old Canton of Abertridwr which lived from 1989 to 1994)
• independence... to give our members a feeling of ownership over the products of our labours, without actually breaking away from our Barony.

Thus we've created an automonous workers collective which recognises the inequities of medieval life and the inherent violence within the feudal system and EMBRACES it! (Have we mentioned that there'll be more wars?)

What's the Truth about Medieval Life?

Who knows? So much is conjecture based upon assumption. What is becoming clear, as more evidence comes to light, is that the stereotypical views of medieval life, as taught in classrooms for the last two hundred years, have been full of holes. The three class "feudal" system (peasant, priestly and noble classes) has been shown to be a creation of revisionist scholars who were trying to change history to create a greater legitimacy for the authority of the Catholic Church.

In fact, Medieval social structure was anything but uniform - being particular to each people, place and time. For instance, whilst feudalism flourished in the countryside, most towns and cities practiced a partially enfranchised form of democracy (ie. merchants and artisans were able to elect town councils) at the pained tolerance of their feudal overlords; industrialisation began in the 14th century at least; Vikings settled briefly in the Americas; medieval people knew the Earth was round... why, there are no end of illusions waiting to be shattered if you are willing to do the research. :)

Where are we?

We stretch from the Indian Ocean in the West to the Darling Escarpement in the East, extending north from Rowley Road (which runs North of Wandi). From there, our "territory" if it can be called such extends to the Swan River - which runs through the heart of Fremantle and Perth.