Unpacking intergenerational trauma on 'Through Their Eyes'

During my Year 10 English class, one of our assignments was to make a podcast by interviewing someone - anyone - of interest.

For this course, we had been listening to the podcast “Stolen,” which explored intergenerational trauma, and I realized that I could share my own family history by speaking to my grandparents. I interviewed my grandmother, whose grandparents were Armenian Genocide survivors as well as my grandfather, whose father Vartan Nersessian was a survivor.

This undated photo shows the mountainous region of Zeitoun, where Vartan Nersessian was from. (WikiMapia)

With this project, I dove deeper into my family history than I ever had before. And for the first time, I heard about how my grandfather’s dad felt as the lone survivor from his family.

Even many years after he found himself alone, without a mother, father or any of his siblings, and even after he had built a family of his own, my grandfather said that it was very hard for his father to consume Turkish food, hear the language, or discuss anything related to his childhood in the Ottoman Empire, now modern-day Turkiye. My grandfather shared that his father never wanted to talk about what happened because of how it forced him to relive the massacres he witnessed.

Vartan Nersessian as a young boy in this undated handout photo.

Since there is scarce documentation about the families who were deported from their homes or killed, and no access to the archives from the Ottoman Empire, it is important that we document these untold oral histories for future generations.

This project changed my perspective by showing me how it is important to document history not just through textbooks but via primary sources. Maybe through this podcast, my own children will learn, one day, where they come from. And maybe, I have given my own family members a voice that will sound for generations to come.