FAMILY FOOTSTEPS

The Age, Australia
/family-footsteps/2008/08/27/1219516547702.html
Au g 28 2008

Joanna Kambourian travels to Armenia, the country her
great-great-grandfather fled.

Memo to the recently unemployed Big Brother workforce: it may have been
called reality television but endless footage of vacuous bimbos sharing
spas with knockabout blokes has sod-all to do with reality. Family
Footsteps brings a refreshing dose of real life to prime time.

Tonight, graphic artist Joanna Kambourian travels from northern
NSW to Armenia, the country her great-great-grandfather fled under
a cloud of shame after World War I. It’s a journey of discovery as
she learns about life in a tiny village and the family history her
own father never knew.

Some aspects could have been better explained. How did she come to
be on the show? How was the host family selected? Who decided their
schedule? All up, though, this is an excellent story, sensitively
told – unless you have a weak stomach. Pig’s trotter soup, anyone?