The enchanting Journey through the talc of mine Paola
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A children carries talc on a sledge
© Archivio Ecomuseo delle Miniere e della Val Germanasca
© Archivio Ecomuseo delle Miniere e della Val Germanasca
The salary of a miner was very low and so the job in a mine was often added that in the country. Women and children contributed to the family income transporting talc, which was dragged on sleighs or brought on shoulder with panniers.
The miners leaving in the valleys chose this type of life despite the difficulties and the extreme fatigue because they refused to abandon their own land: this in fact it was one of the few activities that allowed them to remain in the valley. Besides most of them was valdese and believed working in a factory deprived the individual of his own identity reducing him to a simple number.
In the past they had to face numerous struggles, persecutions and deprivations to see the civil rights recognized (in 1848) and obtain the right to profess their own religion (1948).
The miners leaving in the valleys chose this type of life despite the difficulties and the extreme fatigue because they refused to abandon their own land: this in fact it was one of the few activities that allowed them to remain in the valley. Besides most of them was valdese and believed working in a factory deprived the individual of his own identity reducing him to a simple number.
In the past they had to face numerous struggles, persecutions and deprivations to see the civil rights recognized (in 1848) and obtain the right to profess their own religion (1948).