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Interview of Marjorie MacLean : Interview
Description
16 Feburary 2005
Marjorie Eleanor MacLean (North Vancouver, March 2, 1953).
Marjorie is the second child of five children: Barbara, herself, Janet, Norman, Alexandra. She was the first person in her family to go to university in Canada, sixty years after the family had emigrated from Scotland. She played the chanter when she was a little girl, but her father didn't let her play the pipes because he thought women didn't have enough air in their lungs.... She went to three elementary schools: Lonsdale, Capilano, and Roberts Creek. After High-School, she went to UBC to study Art History and Sculpture. After leaving university, she went to Schedlt to learn how to make first nations baskets with first nations people. She then changed her career direction and started working as an artistic director for the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. Her job involved travelling extensively to many different places – China, Japan, Australia, African nations – in order to seek out performances. She also went to Scotland. She worked in this job for 23 years. In 2000 she left this work and looked to do something else. After taking a year off, she went to SFU for two semesters; she qualified as a Fine Arts teacher.
When asked if she has any feelings of Scottishness, she says that she does. She got these feelings from her dad speaking about “the old country”. She talks about getting off at Heathrow airport and feeling no connection because they were not the people her father had told her about. That feeling crystalized her Canadian identity. She felt at home in Scotland, however, because a lot of people “looked like her father and grandfather” (high cheek-bones, round faces, etc). The people felt “familiar”. When she visited Scotland, she always went to the Edinburgh Festival – both for work and pleasure. She says that she has inherited a lot of unique virtues from her Scottish side: independence, honesty, hard working.
Her father was Ian Norman MacLean (North Vancouver, June 10, 1917). He was the eldest of three children (the first born had died in the pandemic after WWI): Ian, Donald (never learned Gaelic nor the pipes; he was a “Canadian boy”; fought as a tail-gunner in the war), Joanne. He attended elementary school in North Vancouver. He went to Vancouver Tech and technical school in Calgary. He was a carpenter, built houses, and came in to business in the 1930s. He attended trade school, but he worked in mines in North-West BC until the outbreak of WWII. He then worked in the North Vancouver shipyards during the war and then became as a bus-driver. His first language was Gaelic; he didn't speak English until he went to school; the language in the home was Gaelic. He also sang in Gaelic. Marjorie says he was very independent, well-read (especially political tracts), and, politically, was a Socialist. In fact, he ran for office on the Sunshine Coast, but he didn’t win. Supposedly he didn’t spend enough money on the campaign to get his face recognized and his message out. He was a solo piper and won a few medals at various competitions. He was taught the pipes by Eric Thomson, a Scottish friend of his father, Donald.
Her grandfather on her father’s side was Donald MacLean. He was born and raised in a croft on North Tolsta, Lewis. He came to Canada on the Cecelia in 1909 with his two brothers, John and Murdo. After WWI, Alex, another brother, came out. He was a Gaelic speaker. When he first came out, he lay tracks for the inter-urban tram system in Vancouver. He purchased some land at 19th and Grand Boulevard, built a house there, started a family, and stayed there until his death in 1978. The house has since been torn down. He was very active in Scottish community; he set up a Highland dancing competition in North Vancouver and ran it for many years. He also organized the North Vancouver Highland Games. He was also a piper and won many competitions. He also wrote poetry in Gaelic and music for the pipes. One of these poems, roughly translated by Margery, sounds very much like one of Robert Burns’ social commentaries: it was about a landlord and how he had taken everything away from his tenants, even the tufts of wool from the bushes. He was also involved in the Gaelic Society. He worked for BC Electric as a repair man (from the days of horse-drawn trams all the way through to the electric and diesel buses). Both he and his son, Ian, were very attached/loyal to “Lewismen”; they would follow in the footsteps of those who had come out before them and gather with other Lewis families. She talks of a place called New Eden in Quebec where many Lewismen would go as a first stop before heading on to other Lewis communities in Canada. Donald and his brothers went from New Eden to Northern Ontario to work in the mines. Before WWI, the Canadian Government were offering cheap train fairs for people to go out and start populating the West and fill the prairies. So Donald and his brothers came out to Vancouver because there was another Scottish Lewismen group and were received by that group in Vancouver. There was a great sense of Scottish hospitality; places would be set at the dinner-table for strangers looking for a meal. Marjorie’s grandmother, for example, would always receive people and treat them well. Donald was also a champion Delia grower. He also kept prizewinning goats at his home in Vancouver....He was of leftist persuasion politically; in fact, he was so enthusiastic, he signed his wife up for the Communist Party without her knowledge or consent.... He started out with the Communists and then switched to the CCF. He also worked as a campaign manager for a few people. They would go into the mills in North Vancouver and try to unionize the workers and convince them to join the CCF. They would get always run out by the mill owners. His house was always filled with people and political discussion. He was very much of the Scottish self-improving stock and he was not easy to get on with due to his “Highland temperament”. Marjorie believes this temperament comes from the Scottish trait of stubbornness and not being good at forgiving and forgetting. She has never liked this trait, thinks it is “poisonous” and has therefore tried to avoid it as best she could.
Religion was not a big deal in family. But there is a story that a Presbyterian minister came round when Marjorie was very young. He saw them playing cards, was appalled, and so took the cards from the children and threw them in the fire.
Her mother was Norma Francis Charlotte Vulliamy (Vancouver, 26 July, 1927). She went to Vancouver Art School. She is the eldest of children girls; her sister was called Mona. Her family came to England from Switzerland in 1732 to make clocks for Royal family. Her great-grandmother was sold some land in Manitoba before WWI. She was a widow and came out with her five children. Her son, Norma’s grandfather, ended up in Vancouver.
Her grandmother on her mother’s side was from a family of United Empire Loyalists. She was born in Mexico. Her father, whose surname was Ross (Grimsby, Ontario) was sent to Mexico to work with on oil-exploration. He was murdered in Mexico. Marjorie’s grandmother then came out to Vancouver with some of her sisters. She met her husband in Vancouver. He was a Cambridge graduate and ran a small private school in Vancouver.
Her grandmother on her father’s side was Annie MacLeod (North Tolsta, 1886). She worked as a housemaid in Stornaway while her husband was out in Canada; she waited 7 years for his return. She then emigrated to Canada and joined him. She sailed over and then got the train to Vancouver. They were married straight away. When her husband died, she was convinced he “visited” her in the house. She seemed to have “second-sight”, a very common superstitious circumstance among Highlanders. Marjorie also says she “saw” him in the house.
Keywords: bagpipes; Gaelic; Lewis; Scottish communities; Unionism; United Empire Loyalists