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Life after the volcano: the embodiment of small island memories and efforts to keep Montserratian culture alive in Preston, UK
Author(s) -
Hill Lisa
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12084
Subject(s) - diaspora , population , immigration , history , volcano , natural disaster , ethnology , sociology , geography , gender studies , archaeology , demography , seismology , geology , meteorology
In recent years cultural geographers have turned their attention to issues of mobility, migration and diaspora. Yet the lives of those displaced by natural disaster remain under‐researched. In J uly 1995, the S oufriere H ills V olcano began a devastating and drawn‐out volcanic crisis on the tiny C aribbean island of M ontserrat. The volcano was eventually to kill 19 people and see approximately two‐thirds of the population leave the island, scattered throughout the C aribbean, the USA and UK . This article focuses on those now living their lives in P reston, in the north west of E ngland. Drawing on an evening spent ‘under the coconut tree’ with members of the P reston M ontserratian community, I seek to explore the embodiment of small island memories and efforts to keep M ontserratian culture alive in the UK . As such, this article makes a contribution to literature on cultural geographies of migration, diaspora and ‘home’, and geographies of being and belonging.