Happy families : a search for form

Based on Iain Chambers' observations in Migrancy, Culture, Identity (1994, pp. 6-24), the process of migration can be summarized as the relentless transformation of a single entity into multiple spaces and tempos while various histories of language, of politics, of culture and of experiences are distilled. The migrant then has to negotiate the shared occupation of the same new signs with the 'natives' of the new host country. This ongoing process is evident as each new community of migrants arrives in Australia. As each new generation matures, they contribute or distill elements of their home cultures into the fabric of multicultural Australian society. The genesis of Happy Families as a play could be attributed to what Chambers calls the 'relentless transformation' of my migrant family as it attempts to negotiate the spaces in the various communities into which it has been transplanted. This transformation has many facets; some painful, some pleasant, and all inevitable. Hence the play is an attempt to analyze the forces and the circumstances surrounding the transformation such as the issue of assimilation with the attendant loss of cultural roots and the recent unprecedented rise in racial tensions in multicultural societies like Australia.