Transitions and Talismans
This month, I've been busy moving house, a process I'm quite familiar with. During my mid-20s, I once tried to count how many different places I lived in as a child coming from a broken home—the total was over 30, including houses, units, apartments, and studios. It seems that transitions are a common theme in my family, tracing back to both forced and voluntary migrations across seas in our past.
I’ve always been very passionate about working with those who feel displaced, forgotten, or in-between. People who fall between cracks and are caught between one reality and the next. Those who don’t know where they’re going to sleep tomorrow; whose bodies no longer feel like home; who battle decisions around numbing and surrendering; who are made to feel like their voices are not heard; whose human rights are conditional and paradoxical.
In my studies, I was equally intrigued by Donald Winnicott’s (1991) 'transitional objects’ theory, which explores how, in the process of trying to developmentally separate from their primary caregivers, infants seek out and create objects to help support them in their first, significant life transition. The anthropologist David Parkin (1999) speaks to Winnicott’s theory of how people associate their sense of selfhood to talismans, totems, artefacts, ritualistic and magical-spiritual objects to create “ancestral memorials” (p. 318), which connect generations beyond human displacement. Parkin references the experience of refugees and how people who find themselves displaced carry with them sentimental but also purposeful objects to help them reimagine their sense of self and their origins. The personal objects people take with them in the face of flight can—if resettlement conditions and context permit—help them retell their stories and integrate their experiences to move toward one of post-traumatic growth. I like to think about these objects as safety nets or coping strategies when stepping into the unknown.
What I appreciate about Parkin’s article is his challenge to the concept of 'home' or 'origin,' arguing that these labels can encompass multiple locations rather than just one. He draws a parallel to the fluidity of ethnicity and nationality, which defies the Western notion of cultures being tied to distinct territories. This complexity is reflected in human rights issues managed by nation-states, particularly affecting displaced people and Indigenous groups. Parkin’s work prompts a re-evaluation of how we address rights when the notion of a singular 'home' is ambiguous or multifaceted.
This is why when I think of home, I don’t think of Greece, and I don’t think of Australia. I think of the recipes my yiayia carefully wrote down, the green bean seeds my pappou secretly brought in his pocket, the heartfelt letters my mum sent to yiayia during her travels, the lively traditional music and dances shared at family gatherings, the scent of incense and the coloured light through stained glass windows in a Greek Orthodox church, the needlework from my aunties and grandmothers that now decorates my walls, the beekeeping traditions my family has sustained across borders, the rituals we perform for protection, and the photographs of relatives I have never met but deeply love. Even my namesake, Angeliki, has been passed down generationally within my family: I am one of many. These items and experiences are not tied to a single location but have gained new life and meaning as they have moved with us. They have transitioned as we have.
As I continue to move, I carry these elements with me, making each new landing place one of belonging and comfort. I reconstruct 'home' with every step. It's a reminder that while our lives may be marked by movements and changes, what truly defines our sense of place and belonging is the richness of the experiences and the people we carry with us. I have the power and privilege to recreate home once again and for that I am always thankful.
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Parkin, D. (1999). Mementoes as Transitional Objects in Human Displacement. Journal of Material Culture, 4(3), 303–320. doi:10.1177/135918359900400304
Winnicott, D.W. (1991[1964]). The Child, the Family and the Outside World. London: Penguin.
