Reading by Stephanie Green

Dr Stephanie Green, Writer and Cultural Historian,
Senior Lecturer, The School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University

Eve Puodžiūnaitė Wicks’ exquisite book of stories and images, Saulėje ir šešėlyje. In Sunshine and in Shadow, is the culmination of many years of research, writing, photography and oral interviews which together create a multi-layered exploration of mid-20th century Lithuanian migration to Brisbane, Australia. The author has woven together personal testimony from Lithuanian community members, elegiac photographic portraits, family photographs and sensitively crafted passages of reflective writing to create this emotional account.

Although the work may have had its germination in the author’s own family stories – her parents were of Lithuanian origin – it is far more than the story of one family. It relates the experience of a whole community of people who settled in Brisbane during and after World War II. The people came to Brisbane from different regions and occupational backgrounds, and as singles, couples, and families with children, uprooted from their homes by war. Eve Wicks has brought their stories together in this beautifully constructed assemblage of images and text, presented in both the Lithuanian and English languages.

Eve Wicks’ own photography plays a significant role in this book. The expressive tonality of these images portrays the faces of people interviewed, hinting at the layers of emotion and experience. Her photography also captures the material elements of their lives. Sometimes these images are a testament to the culture and creativity of the Lithuanians, the hand-embroidered, hand-woven wool and linen, music and dance traditions. She has also collected poems by Lithuanian writers which complement the images and the narrative to create a rich expression of cultural identity.

Rich in imagery the work is carefully shaped into themed sections which track key facets of the Lithuanians’ experience, from original homeland to Australia and return visiting. As with so many groups of people who came to Australia during the successive waves of post-war migration the small Lithuanian community in Brisbane struggled to find acceptance on their own terms. Expression in their mother tongue was curtailed. Their European qualifications were not recognised, and many with university and professional qualifications, and some with vocational qualifications had to retrain or adapt to new kinds of work and life pathways, their sense of identity and purpose profoundly disrupted by the trauma of War and dislocation.

This work is in many ways a narrative of loss, but it is equally one of beauty and joy as the author celebrates the rich cultural heritage of her forebears and honours the people she interviewed. As she affirms, this ‘narrative is a testament to the generosity of all the people who welcomed me to their homes, shared their stories and precious memorabilia, enabled me to discover history, and helped me to reconnect to my roots in an ancient culture’ (11).

Undoubtedly, the book is a lyrical and aesthetic expression of cultural understanding, but it is also a significant contribution to knowledge about the impact of Lithuanian dispersal and thus to Australian Migration history. The author has drawn extensively on archival documents to deepen her knowledge of the history and although this evidence never intrudes awkwardly, it does provide a substantive foundation for the work.

This is not a book that can be easily slotted into a single commercial publication category. From one perspective an intimate photograph collection, and an oral history, it is also the remarkable narrative of a second generation Australian Lithuanian coming to grips with the history of her people as she and they negotiate a changing world.