Migration and Identity Poles. However, this distance appeared to be much bigger. The migrant Kurpies were double strangers, both as newcomers and, what is more, as representatives of an expressive folkloric group. Their pride and the basis of their identity was the fact that Kurpies had never been serfs. On the other hand, they were seen as a poor and backward population, which the abovementioned short story proves. Ethnographers have been interested in Kurpies for a long time, and the most meritorious for basic knowledge of Kurpie culture is Adam Chętnik, who in 1924 published a book describing “the people of the Wilderness”, as the Kurpie used to call themselves (from the Green Wilderness). It was Chętnik who wrote: “Kurpies did not know serfdom, therefore they have a well developed personal dignity, you will not see excessive fawning and humility here. Between themselves, they address each other as “you”, while they also often address each other as “brother”. Sometimes they address visitors and newcomers in the same way.” (Chętnik, 1924, p. 14) It should be noted that in Polish culture with noble roots, the basic expression used in everyday communication is “sir” or “madam”. Starting with my uncle’s story, I began systematic field research in 2003, visiting the village founded by Kurpie hands. It was the only one on this territory—within a radius of at least 60 km—and the centre of the migrants from Kurpie. I interviewed people individually and in groups, recording my interlocutors with audio and video techniques. Heather Weyrick from the USA, a young film school graduate who spoke some (though not much) Polish, helped me in filming the interviews. We attempted to make an experiment: for obvious reasons, Heather aroused the interest of my interlocutors. Nevertheless, as we appeared there together—the “native intellectual” and the “Total Stranger”—people treated her in a very friendly way, rather as an acquaintance from a distant country instead of a “researcher”. I immodestly believe that I myself was a guarantee that she was not an intruder. All of the interlocutors assumed that Heather knew nothing about the Polish countryside or the specific character of their life and work, thus they thought it proper to explain everything to her in detail. That is why we agreed that, from time to time, Heather would ask questions which were not appropriate for me to ask. As a “native”
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