This project explores Lithuanians who immigrated to New Zealand as refugees in 1950s. The project includes intimate interviews of families filmed in their homes talking about their memories of the journey mainly through the eyes of a child. It also includes photographs of the families and my own personal experience of living in the country for a year while working on this.
Most of the people interviewed are mainly in their late 70s and early 80s. They talk about what they remember from their own experiences as well as their parents stories from the day they stepped foot out of occupied Lithuania, to life in the Displaced Persons camps in Germany, and finally, the moment they were accepted as refugees in New Zealand, and coming over without even knowing where this country is.
The project also explores topics of identity and what is was like for these people growing up in New Zealand with Lithuanian parents. Some of them were born in New Zealand to Lithuanian parents. The project touches on the gradual loss of Lithuanian language over the years, and the quiet grief that comes with it. The project also covers topics of trauma from the Soviet occupation, the fragility and resilience of cultural memory, as well as hope, community. The strength of community as well as the loss of it.
By sharing personal stories alongside bigger questions of migration and identity, the project shows how history lives on—not just in books, but in the memories, emotions, and everyday lives of those who went through it and the generations that come after.
This is an ongoing project that started in March 2025. (The documentary film is still in the making should be finished late 2026)
