Stories My Grandmothers Didn’t Tell Me: Andra Putnis deep dives into wartime Latvia
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Author Andra Putnis’s home suburb of Watson is roughly 15,000 kilometres from the sweeping Baltic architecture of Riga, Latvia.
But this 15,000 kilometres was the distance crossed by Andra’s two grandmothers as they escaped the challenges of post-war Europe. As part of the wave of wartime migration, both women found a new beginning on Australian shores. Now, Andra is recounting their journeys in her first book, Stories My Grandmothers Didn’t Tell Me.
We sat down with Andra, who is currently completing her Masters of Culture, Health and Medicine at ANU with a focus on qualitative research and storytelling techniques, to learn how she delved into her family’s past – and what she learned along the way.
Writing about your own family’s history is deeply personal. How did you go about respectfully delving into the past?
The process of researching and writing my Latvian grandmothers’ stories was all about understanding deeply personal events in my family and situating them in the broader historical context of the Second World War in Europe and post-war migration to Australia.
The experience felt intimate, beautiful, painful…and risky at times. The hardest parts to write were about the moments of terror and despair experienced by my grandmothers. I found it really important to balance these with moments of levity and love.
I went about respectfully delving into the past by keeping the granddaughter-grandmother relationship front and centre and always remembering my intention to honour my grandmothers’ lives. I found that with this intention I could still write with honesty about my grandmothers as real people.
A lot of the time, I took my lead from my family, particularly Nanna Aline who spoke about her life with remarkable frankness and was a master storyteller! I came to understand it was the whole of their lives – the dark parts as well as the lighter ones – that needed to be honoured.
How did you come to write about this particular topic?
In my late twenties, I was living in Darwin and thinking seriously about trying to write a book (I’ve always loved writing and reading). The clear ringing thought came to me: The story I need to find out, and tell, is the story of my grandmothers.
You see, growing up I knew my Nanna Aline and Grandma Milda had hidden stories about how they survived the Second World War in Latvia and then journeyed to Australia to build new lives. I knew there were remarkable stories within my family if I just plucked up the courage to ask for them.
I knew immediately from the prickling, excited and scared feeling in my body that I was on the right track. I soon went down to Newcastle to ask my Nanna Aline for her story. She sized me up, asked a few tough questions and then we began. I was immediately hooked on the project.
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What parts of this process affected you the most? What did you learn and what’s stuck with you?
The most powerful part of the process was the many hours I spent sitting beside Nanna Aline as she shared the story of her life. She was able to draw meaning from all she went through – her childhood in Latvia, experiences of the Soviet and Nazi occupations, ending up alone at the end of the war and then trying to move forward in Australia with heavy millstones of trauma and regret around her neck.
As is often the case with older people who’ve seen a lot of life, Nanna Aline also had a fantastic sense of humour and was able to laugh and find the absurdity and joy in her experiences. It was a huge privilege to sit beside her and listen to her speak.
The feeling of being awe-struck by the immensity of what can be witnessed and experienced in one human life is what will stay with me forever. Nanna lived for 97 years on this Earth. There is a passage in the book where I say, ‘Nanna taught me nothing less than what it means to be human, to earn the grace and wisdom that come from surviving darkness and celebrating light.’ That’s a big life lesson.
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What’s next for you?
I would love to keep writing. It’s the way I really learn what I think about a subject. People often say ‘write what you know’ but I also think it’s a good idea to ‘write what you want to find out about’. Especially as it can take years and years to write a book! I am currently exploring the topic of inter-generational family dynamics, identity and climate change.
What’s on your to-be-read pile?
It’s a big pile! I’ve just started Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright so that is going to be a long journey. Then I will dive into Model Minority Gone Rogue by Qin Qin, Lioness by Emily Perkins, Highway to Hell – Quarterly Essay by Joëlle Gergis and Dear Mutzi by Tess Scholfield-Peters.
Feature image: Andra Putnis. Credit: Thorson Photography
