The Stone House
Every fall, I get the itch to go to school. Something about those back-to-school commercials, or maybe it’s the change to fall temperatures. Whatever it is, I’m glad it hits me the way it does, because it gives me a chance to explore something new or get a little more creative than usual.
A couple of years ago, I signed up for the Documentary Photography class at Ryerson University. It was a great learning experience, with smaller photographic assignments at the beginning of the course, and a larger independent project for our final assignment.
For my final project, I decided to document some of my family’s history. Growing up, I can remember many stories being told by my parents and extended family about their life back in Sri Lanka. I come from a very large family. My mom is one of 15 kids, and my dad is one of 10 kids. Central to most of my family’s stories is a house called “Kalveedu,” which translates to “Stone House.”
It was my mother’s family home in a small village called Atchuvely, which is near the town of Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka. As the youngest in her family, it was given to my mother as her wedding dowry. During the political unrest in 1983, it was no longer safe for my father’s family to remain living in the capital city in the South. They moved to Atchuvely, and Kalveedu became their home for some time. As a result of these unique circumstances, I have heard about the same house through very different experiences from both sides of the family.
I have vague memories of this house from my own childhood, and in 2012, I had the opportunity to see the house as it stands. Walking around the house in ruins, I was surprised at how much I remembered from my visit there as a three year old. I wanted to explore this part of my family heritage through this project. I was hoping to fill in the gaps of my own recollections, and document the memories of those who lived in the house. I have combined historical photos from family albums, photos that I took in 2012, and photos that I took along with audio interviews in order to tell the story of Kalveedu.
