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Cornishness at Moonta is a Living Culture

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Cornishness at Moonta is a Living Culture

25 October 2009

Cornishness at Moonta is a living culture according to Philip Payton, the Professor of Cornish and Australian Studies at the University of Exeter in Cornwall.

In his talk presented by the South Australian Department for Environment & Heritage and the State Library following the  Kernewek Lowender Cornish festival earlier this year, entitled Heritage Place and Identity - South Australian Cornish Mining Landscapes, Professor Payton said, on arriving at Moonta, that he was "astonished by the number of Cornish flags flying from public buildings, people's cottages and houses and businesses in the main street". He went on to say "I don't think I have ever seen such a profusion of Cornish ( St Piran ) flags in any one particular place, including Cornwall itself". He also made reference to the huge numbers of Cornish Pasties consumed in the three towns over the Kernewek Lowender festival including some 8,000 pasties in one day.

"Here was something rather extraordinary going on and even the most sceptical observer of the Cornish Festival must acknowledge it touched something very deep in the South Australian psychic that what we were seeing here was a real expression of some sort of living culture today, different of course from the 19th century, but with a strong sense of continuity and strong sense of contemporary heritage based on that historic link with Cornwall and with cornishness."

Professor Payton's observations of the living cornish culture at Moonta are timely and poignant given Moonta Mines pending case and short listing for National Heritage Status.