This paper is written in a narrative style to enhance points made about different cultural stories. It compares Newfoundland author Al Pittman’s play, West Moon, with ancient monuments in Greece in order to underscore how important it is for different cultures to understand each other’s monuments and ruins. While there are no ancient ruins in Newfoundland comparable to those in Greece, the ruins spoken of in West Moon (the mostly deserted traditional outports, or fishing villages) carry an importance similarity to ancient Greek monuments. They speak of traditions, a connection between past and present, and cultural ways, and they ultimately make one aware of the importance of a culture. The paper considers how some cultures have oral “ruins” as much as oral continuance, the latter based on the passing down of stories, and how both oral and written monuments are equally important. Inevitably, this paper turns briefly to a consideration of today’s refugee crises and posits that the recognizing of cultural continuance and remnants of monuments (carried with people through memory and narrative) might help break down the hopeless divides between “us” and “them.”
