Raasay
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about "Hallaig", an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes about nature. Thus, although the Clearances leave an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of those evicted or forced to emigrate, "Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig".
Pollyfilla
Colin McLean was born in Wellington in August 1978, spending the first five years of his life in Raumati South and then moving with his family to Petone, a suburb of Lower Hutt. He attended Petone College, but dropped out before graduation, and took a job delivering mail at a Wellington law firm, where he worked for two and a half years. During this time, he began to do drag, designing and sewing his own costumes because it was less expensive than buying or renting costumes. McLean is openly gay.