‘Hiding in plain sight’: the incredible stories that can often go untold

When she was a little girl, Andra Putnis’ grandparents came across as characters from fairy tales. 

To her, they almost weren’t real people – rather – they were characters from wonderous yet dark stories of years gone by, from exotic and faraway places in Europe, their secrets locked away. 

The Masters of Culture, Health and Medicine student grew up knowing her grandparents had a very different childhood story to hers. Even when her grandmother Milda moved into the family home when Putnis was 10, much remained unsaid for many years to come.  

“I knew Grandma Milda well, and she had told me different stories about her life, but when it came to writing the book I had the complicated task of going around and interviewing family members, her old friends, and she kept a lot of old letters and papers,” she says. 

“I had to piece together her story.” 

The book is Stories My Grandmothers Didn’t Tell Me, an intriguing tale of two women’s journeys from war-torn Europe to a new life in Australia and it tells the life stories of Putnis’ two remarkable grandmothers. 

Milda, her mother’s mother, was born in Riga, Latvia in 1913. Her father’s mother, Aline, was also born in Latvia – in the small town of Kraslava in 1924. She was much younger than Milda, but both went through the same broad war experience. 

However, Putnis discovered they had very different perspectives and journeys, because of their ages and different social and religious backgrounds. 

“When I was growing up, I always knew my grandmothers had really big stories to tell,” she says.  

“We’d go and visit their houses and there were all these Latvian things there, huge tapestries on the walls, Latvian food and language, but I didn’t know what had actually happened to them during the Second World War and back in Latvia.” 

In her late 20s, Putnis began her journey to better understand her grandmothers’ stories and how they arrived in Australia. 

While her Nanna Aline was alive to share her story, Grandma Milda had already died, meaning Putnis had to piece together many of her experience through friends, family and heirlooms. 

“I studied an undergrad here at ANU – I did Arts/Law – and then I went into the public service, but I always had this sense that I wanted to be a writer and to know what they had gone through. 

“I moved to the Northern Territory and was working in the public service there on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land and sea management issues, ranger programs and community development, and started to get an early understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and connection to country. 

“And I thought, well, I can’t keep going without knowing more about how my family got to Australia, and if I’m going to try and write something, it should be the stories of my grandmothers.” 

It wasn’t until Putnis was many years into the planning and research of the book that she decided to pursue her Masters degree. 

The only program of its kind in Australia, the Master of Culture, Health and Medicine combines anthropological, sociological, and other social science perspectives, as well as technical expertise in health-related research and practice. 

The program also explores interconnections between sociocultural, politico-economic, historical, and environmental factors that shape health. 

Putnis said she had found the program unique and that it had encouraged interdisciplinary thinking about health, wellbeing and identity. 

“With the overlay of culture and society too, it allows for quite broad thinking about what creates health and wellbeing and the importance of qualitative research and storytelling techniques in understanding people’s lives,” she said. 

“I have got a social and health policy background, but I realised [the program] was broad enough to support me combining my work and writing,  and move further away from solely biomedical concepts of health and into very broad concepts of identity and meaning and what makes a healthy and meaningful life. 

“What I wanted in doing the Masters was more of an education on some of these broad issues and more space to think about them.” 

While interviewing her Nanna Aline, Putnis realised some of the stories being told in the suburban weatherboard house in Newcastle could have been repeated in thousands of household homes across Australia. 

And while there were some difficult conversations between Putnis and her Nanna, she said the process had helped them understand each other better. 

“We don’t often realise that there’s these hidden stories in our families, they’re just hiding in plain sight. 

“When Nanna was talking about these momentous historical events and her place in them: what struck me was that most families in Australia have come from somewhere else and aspects of migrant and refugee stories are, in some way, universal.  

“When I turned up at Nanna’s house with the idea of writing a book, she looked at me shrewdly and had some tough questions: What are you really on about? Are you serious?  What do you really want to know? Why don’t you just read a book?  

“If you want to know Latvia’s story you could just read a book … or is it that you want to know my story. 

“I think that’s the story she ultimately wanted to tell – her story – and what unfolded was an intimate tale of her life, and the crazy, sad and beautiful things that happened to her, up against the backdrop of some of the most tumultuous events in modern history.” 

Stories My Grandmothers Didn’t Tell Me (Allen & Unwin) by Andra Putnis is out now and available at all good bookstores and online. 

This article first appeared at ANU College of Health and Medicine.