Orkney’s Canadian First Nations visitors will only get as far as Glasgow airport unless more money can be found.

The Scottish Arts Council has granted £10,000 towards the visit this coming autumn, but the shortfall is at the Canadian end.

Kim Foden, secretary of the Saskatchewan First Nations Coming Home committee, said the visitors had exhausted their fundraising possibilities but had raised only enough to get them to Glasgow.

She is about to embark on a fundraising campaign to get the money to bring them the rest of the way.

“We need just under £3,000,” she said. As well as seeking sponsors to help pay for the journey north from Glasgow and the meals the visitors will need on the way, Mrs Foden is organising a raffle.

“It’s a slight disaster.

“We’ve been fundraising here and we’ve got this money from the Scottish Arts Council to host and organise their time here and the events.

The money from the arts council has enabled the committee to finalise the programme for the visit of the Cree people to the home of their ancestors.

Mrs Foden said the 25 Cree would range from elders to students and include two lecturers from the First Nations University of Canada. Professor Willie Ermine has visited Orkney previously.

The trip is a joint project of Sturgeon Lake First Nation, the Coming Home Committee and the First Nations University of Canada.

The group leader is Wes Stevenson, acting president of the university.

The visitors will arrive on August 31 and have a rest day before a major concert at the Pickaquoy Centre on Thursday, September 2.

Mrs Foden said this would give the Cree a chance to show Orcadians their songs, stories, dance and drumming.

The Friday will be spent visiting six schools before The Land and the Sea and the Stars in St Magnus Cathedral.

Part of the Science Festival, this is described as a journey through the natural world, with readings from the work of Orkney writers, the Mayfield Singers, organist George McPhee, of Paisley Abbey, and the First Nations visitors explaining their view of the theme through stories and music.

Mrs Foden said Orkney folk would have a chance to meet the visitors at a drop-in day in Tankerness House Gardens (in the community centre if wet) on Saturday, September 4.

“It’s a day when people can just come along and chat,” she said.

On the Sunday, the visitors will have time to themselves before heading to Westray on the Monday.

A concert and social evening have been organised for them by the Westray Community Association.

James Drever, one of the Orkney ancestors of the visitors, left Westray to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In Canada, he married the daughter of a native chief, Mista Wasis.

Their children took the name Drever. Many of the Cree now have Orcadian names, Mrs Foden said.

“In all the reserves, Isbister is one of the most common names,” she said.

Her own ancestor, Magnus Twatt, married into the Cree people.

Mrs Foden said it was hoped to open a study centre in Scotland where First Nations and Metis (mixed blood) academics could study the links between the native Canadians and the Scots.

There were many cross-overs which the two cultures might not always be aware of, she said.

For example, when she was offered bannock by some of her Cree relatives, they were surprised that she was familiar with the food and the word, because they believed it was a native food.

“The First Nations people look upon this visit as a sort of pilgrimage,” she said. “They are coming to see the home of their grandfathers.”