In my class Canadian Literature we read the play "Glace Bay Miners’ Museum" written by Wendy Lill (based on the novel by Sheldon Currie) and at the end of the discussion of the play, we watched the movie adaptation called "Margaret’s Museum". The play is considered to be a memory play, and with regards to diaspora, it might also be called a diasporic play because a careful observer can notice several aspects of diaspora throughout the play and also the movie adaptation.
The play as well as the movie adaptation consist of memories recalled by the main character Margaret, who used to live with her mother, her grandfather, and her brother in the settlement surrounding the Glace Bay mine on the Canadian east coast, and who has already lost her father and her older brother in a fatal accident in the mine. The play is a retrospective told by Margaret, who is mentally distorted in the present because she has not only lost her father and older brother, but also her husband and her youngest brother. Since Margaret’s family is not First Nation Canadian, they are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, who came to Canada at an undisclosed point of time in the past. Margaret’s family cannot really considered to be living in the diaspora at first because they do not practise any culturally distinct traditions that would show their connection to their homeland. But when Margaret falls in love with Neil Currie, who is still very closely connected to his home country through the knowledge of the Gaelic language and Gaelic traditional music and memories of his own or that were passed on by his relatives, the family’s connection to their homeland is revitalized.
In fact, it is Margaret’s mute grandfather, who remembers the Gaelic tunes that Neil plays on his bagpipes and he is therefore reminded of his cultural origin, which has been buried in oblivion during the past years of his life. The reasons for the neglect of their cultural roots and country of origin are not mentioned in neither the play nor the movie adaptation, but they can probably be found in the struggle to survive with the low wages paid in the mining industry and the tragic loss of the father and the older son of the family because this means that there is one person less to support the family.
It is possible that in other cases families like the one in this play would especially cling to their cultural roots under the given circumstances because they are dissatisfied with their situation. The initial reasons for immigrants like this family or their ancestors to come to Canada were probably grounded in the hope for a better life and they did not expect such struggles as they now face in the mining industry. The family presented in the play however, completely suppresses its cultural origins (probably Scottish, but it is never literally mentioned in the play) at first and only when Neil enters the family, the grandfather’s memories are revived and therefore the younger generations of the mother and Margaret and her brother Ian (Jimmy in the movie adaptation) are reminded of their cultural origins.
Even though the family does not really go back to practising their Gaelic culture and therefore are not members of a diaspora, they are at least made aware of it again by the appearance of Neil Currie, who, in my opinion, can be considered as living in the diaspora. The role of memory in this play and movie adaptation is important with regard to diaspora because memories of the home country are usually central within diasporas. In this play and movie memories are given special significance because on the one hand, the whole play and movie consist of Margaret’s memories, and on the other hand, Neil’s memories of his culture evoke memories in the grandfather’s mind that have long been forgotten.
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