Weekend Australian
August 23, 2008 Saturday
5 – All-round Review Edition

Return to Armenia, in search of meaning

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28
by Jill Rowbotham

Family Footsteps: Armenia

8.30pm, ABC1

THIS intriguing story’s dark background is the Armenian genocide of
1915. This is the genocide denied by its alleged perpetrator, Turkey.

Joanna Kambourian’s family is one among millions for whom the
repercussions continue.

The graphic artist from coastal NSW is the troubled subject of the
first episode in the new series of Family Footsteps. She is the
daughter of a Dutch mother and an Armenian-American father. But it was
her Armenian great-grandfather on whom events turned. As conditions
deteriorated around him he had to choose between saving his family by
betraying his culture or accepting the high risk of their very cruel
deaths.

He chose life. Now Joanna wants to return to Armenia to see if time
has changed the harsh judgment.

“The worst thing about going to Armenia would be that the Armenian
people do not forgive my family for the past,” she says.

Her father is encouraging. “Here’s a culture you are part of, kid, go
do it,” he says.

Two weeks in the village of Ohanavan is every bit the cultural
bootcamp you may imagine, although she is warmly embraced by host
Tehmineh, a teacher; her husband Ara, an orchardist; and his mother,
Jemma, also a teacher.

Joanna struggles to contribute by working in the bakery, making lavash
bread using centuries-old techniques, eats unpalatable local
delicacies and even allows a rooster to be sacrificed for her host
family to confer a blessing on her.

In fact, this is only one of their gifts; the other is their
hospitality and care for her, signified by assigning her Jemma’s room,
the warmest in the house, being next to the stove.

Joanna’s winter visit inevitably means we see Armenia at its bleakest
and it’s hard to resist a shake of the head when she joins in a
celebration in Tehmineh’s classroom, staged because heating has been
restored to the school after two years.

The more conventional upsides are learning to dance with the women,
touring the market of the nearby capital, Yerevan, and visiting the
vicinity of Mt Ararat, where Noah’s ark landed, according to the Bible
story. Beyond it lies the village from which her family came, today
part of Turkey.

It’s all part of the search for her Armenian identity and some comfort
to take back to her father, so her visits to the genocide museum and a
local historian are powerful moments.

“I owe it to my family, my ancestry, to find a way to put a lot of
their feelings of grief and shame and loss to rest, but I’m not sure
how that is going to go,” she says.

The family could not have chosen a better emissary.