A silver tray, two small vases and a silver flask engraved with the icon of Agios Georgios are all the belongings Ourania Stamatiadou-Koutsogiannis’ grandparents managed to bring with them to Greece. These objects are part of her family history, but also of the history of all refugees. Ourania believes that their value lies in their ability to disseminate and preserve refugee history.
The Museum of the Pontian Women’s Association, called ‘Embroidering memory’, was inaugurated in 2005. Several of the objects in its collection came from Pontus and Russia, traversing space and time. Among them, the embroidered hairbrush case of Elisavet Theodoridou (nee Grammatikopoulou) which came from Kars, Russia.
The Museum of the Pontian Women’s Association, called ‘Embroidering memory’, was inaugurated in 2005. Several of the objects in its collection came from Pontus and Russia, traversing space and time. Among them, an embroidery from Trapezounta known as a ‘kourtinaki’ or ‘keimilio’, one of the two curtain panels covering an icon display embroidered in a paisley pattern (lahuri in Turkish), a pattern widely used in Pontus.
A single burner gas stove, tea cups, and ornate saucers crossed the Aegean Sea, reached Nea Ionia of Volos, and were later donated by their owners to the ‘Englezonisi’ Cultural Association of Asia Minor Greeks of Nea Ionia, Magnisia, so that they could take their place in the community’s shared past and assist in their own way in the effort towards the preservation of its memory and history.
Charoula Panagiotidou has kept objects brought to Greece by her mother’s family. She still uses all of them in her everyday life and shares their stories with her children and grandchildren in an effort to keep the history of her family alive and preserve the memory of the house, the village, and the life they left behind.