Cultural highlights 2025: Inspiring women and a living legend (or two)

Ben Isaac-Evans

Featuring images of women farming, teaching, drilling, working at factories, and prisons, Viv Collis’ exhibition in Swansea National Waterfront Museum shone a light on the work women have always been capable to do yet have been stereotyped against doing, by men.

As a man who has a young daughter, I was struck by the importance of this exhibition, held over much of 2025 (8 March-15 December).

My Grandmother was a seamstress by trade and often had to hide her work from my grandfather in the 1950’s and 60’s, to make sure he provided for their children.

The old-fashioned sexist tropes of my grandfather, that women should stay at home while the men went out to work, you would have thought, had died out by 2025. But the stereotypes around women still exist, unfortunately.

Which is why it’s refreshing to find such an excellent exhibition by the talented documentary photographer Viv Collis, who combined her images of women in the workplace alongside archived photographs from the museum.

Many of the images portrayed the roles women play within our society that are often overlooked, showing the importance to young girls and women that they can pursue any job they choose.

It was haunting to walk around the museum at a quiet time on a Sunday afternoon with this exhibition in front of me, while thinking of what women have had to endure over the generations, but also what they are more than capable of achieving.

I would hope to see more work like this in the future, not just in museums but everywhere, in the hope that it will inspire my daughter’s generation.

I also look forward to seeing where this work takes Viv Collis next.

Thank you to her and to Swansea National Waterfront Museum for putting this exhibition on and for making a close-to-middle-aged man think of what is possible for his daughter.

Jess Fishlock’s retirement from playing for Cymru!

I couldn’t possibly talk about 2025’s cultural highlights without talking about Jess Fishlock and her retirement from playing for the ladies’ National football team.

She’s been quite an incredible ambassador for the sport and for Wales.

Jess played her last game for Wales against Australia on October the 25th having become Wales’s the record holder for most appearances (166) and most goals (48). It’s rather ironic that her last game for Wales was against Australia, as Jess had played and coached Melbourne City in three different spells between 2012-2018.

She’s scored some quite incredible goals for Cymru over the years, with screamers such as her half volley against Northern Ireland for her 100th cap and a 30-yard chip against Italy in the Nations League. The goal that stands out for me, however, is the goal she scored against France in the Euro’s.

Although not a spectacular goal, it highlighted her and her nation’s determination and passion to chase a ball that was deflected and could have been lost to then poke a foot out to score. Wales would go on to lose the game, but Jess’s goal was the first ever Wales women’s goal at any major tournament. She also became the oldest player to score at the Euros finals. The list of accolades goes on and on.

Before her Euros final appearances, a mural of her was created in Splott Football Park in Cardiff as a reminder for future generations that with pride, passion and determination, they too could put on the red jersey of Wales one day.

Now living in Seattle with her wife, who also played for Seattle Reign, she signed a new contract in November to play another season for the club that was one of the founding teams in the league. She is the only player still with her original team, from when the league launched in 2013!

She is a “dysgwraig Cymraeg” (Welsh learner) and faced the challenge head-on while being filmed for the S4C show, Iaith ar Daith.

If ever there was a cultural icon in Wales, Jess Fishlock is it.

Dafydd Iwan

What is there to be said about Dafydd Iwan that hasn’t already been said?! Along with Jess Fishlock’s incredible achievements for Cymru’s football team, it is an incredible achievement to have performed at every national Eisteddfod for the past sixty, yes, sixty years!

Dafydd and his talented band took to the stage on Sunday the 3rd of August, which was also his 82nd birthday, with several thousand people expecting him to sing some of his favourite songs. And they were not disappointed.

He said: “The line has to be drawn somewhere, and I’m looking forward to enjoying several more ‘Steddfods’ from the back seats!”

After a 60-year stint, surely, he deserves a bit of a break now! His anthemic song Yma O Hyd, which is now a staple for the crowds at Cymru’s football games, has been a patriotic reminder to people that we still speak Welsh against all the odds. Released in 1982 and reaching number 1 on the UK iTunes chart in January 2020, with the rise of the Welsh independence group Yes Cymru, the song is still held in high regard by much of the Welsh public.

I met Dafydd many years ago and was in awe of him at first, stumbling my words while saying hello, but later got to speak to him properly over a pint in a pub in Aberystwyth.

He probably doesn’t remember me, but I remember asking him if he had heard of the Armenian/American band System of a Down, who sing of the Armenian people’s fight for survival through the Armenian Genocide.

He had not heard of them, probably because they are a headbanging heavy metal band, but I find the spirit of his music in a similar vein to theirs. The Armenians and the Welsh are still here!

S4C will be hosting a show called Y Cyfweliad featuring Dafydd Iwan on 26 December, which will be available after on S4C clic thereafter.