Riley Duns

This audio portrait is the product of a conversational interview between myself and my aunt, Clara, where I grasp her thoughts about “home”, and what it means to her. Moving away from my home for university back in 2017 was a big change, but, having my aunt, uncle, and cousins here in Ottawa made the move, and feeling at home a whole lot easier. On the flip side of the coin, I was intrigued to hear my auntie’s perspectives and feelings of home; from my point of view, it was a great interview because I learned more about my mother’s side of the family through Clara’s stories. So, the first half of the audio portrait consists of a brief narrative where Clara explains that at an early age, she wasn’t able to gain a sense of home due to being forced away from her home country, Hungary, in 1956. Further, Clara enlightens finding home in Canada, a “Hungarian upbringing” in the western world, and what it meant to visit her home country for the first time in her adult life. In the final half of this sound-based ‘snapshot’, Clara discusses home being more than a singular place, particularly how she finds a feeling of home through community - a parish she’s remained loyal to since 1979.