Evocative Object I

This Matryoshka doll is a substitute for the one that I have admired and played with since I was a young child. The one that means the most to me belongs to my mom and the largest doll has an egg plant coloured dress and each doll nestled into her belly wears a red dress like the one above. In the mid-1960s my aunt travelled to Ukraine when it was still part of Russia and brought the purple doll and her brood back. Travelling in the USSR at this time was dangerous and she did not tell her parents (my Opa and Oma) about the trip until after she had safely returned. For me, the Matryoshka doll is an evocative object. It is a beautiful object embedded with childhood memories of stacking the dolls from smallest to tallest, the colours and patterns adorning each doll, and the squeak made when I opened the doll and tried to align her arms and hands at the end of play. This object represents a brave aunt and the "homeland" that my Mennonite grandparents and great-grandparents fled in the 1920s.