Identity in the Scottish Diaspora

[jfraser]

Admittedly, my patience with crossing this particular bridge is wearing rather thin.

In Nova Scotia, as in Scotland, there have been systematic attempts to eliminate the Gaelic language and culture. People were beaten for speaking Gaelic at school and mocked for their accented English. All schools were in English (or later French).

After decades of fighting to preserve and maintain our culture and bring it back from the verge of extinction, we have finally made the English speaking population of the province see it as an asset rather than something to be stamped out.

I mention this only to explain the passion and pain that the subject elicits. To fight so hard to preserve and protect our Highland Scottish culture we view as precious only to be nonchalantly brushed aside by some of our native-born Scottish cousins and told we have no claim to our peoplehood is more than a difference of opinion.

As a member of a diaspora Highland Scottish community in Canada, I take great umbridge in being told we are simply Canadian full stop and the Scottish fact of our cultural reality us unworthy of mention, label or recognition.

Of course I'm a proud Canadian but that doesn't tell my whole story. I'm a Canadian of the Scottish variety and we have left an indelible mark on the creation of this nation.

I obviously can't make my Scottish friends on this forum agree with me and stop thinking we are not Scottish by any definition but I will ask them to stop voicing that view on the forum once and for all.

An uncle from my mothers side of the family, talks about being hit at school by the teacher every time the children spoke Gaelic in the school vicinity. This was in the Outer Hebrides and I estimate this to be around the late 1920's.

My own experience shows that there is a close connection between the Gaelic speaking peoples of Canada and Scotland and apart from geographical distance, culturally they are not miles apart.