Nonna (Grandma), I Had to Go

Story of my life
Travelling space and time
it’s getting a hold of me
Sorrow and Nostalgia, no escape
it’s a prophecy written by human nature
the travel, the exploration, migration.

Conundrum, one Nonna here, one Nonna there. No escape from missing one.

We moved in ships and airplanes, or stayed grounded like roots to roots.
Grandma, forgive my disappearance
I had to follow clearer rivers
I had to follow bluer skies
and money. And safety.

Grandma, cook me sauce, cook me veggies,
and Grandma, spread the vegemite on toast.
Let me know, what can I do for you?
Stay a little while more?

But I have a plane to take, my migrating spirit says to go.

Across the seas and clouds the plane trembles
I miss you more with every motion sickness
I had to go, I had to, I think.

And I arrive to this “never-terra-nullius”, and another Nonna awaits me. Choosing one
option is the dead of all others
a philosopher once said.
I can’t remember who.
But you wait for me, ok?
Stop time, for a little while
I’ll come, bearing love and gifts.
I’ll come, for you to pass me skills
love, traditions, love, a bottle of red sauce.

I have to follow human kind
I have to move
I have to go further,
as my love also did
her Grandpa from great-china
left roots in Singapore
for her to fly here
My Italian roots travelled
deeps
across seas
to meet with hers
to meet with her.

Nonna, I’ll come
bearing love, gifts
and my love
She’ll call you Nonna too
and we’ll stay for a while.

Both of my nonnas are called Tina (though we call one Titi’). Tina in Italian tends to be an abbreviation of several names. In my case, one nonna’s full name is “Annunziata”, and the other’s “Concetta”. Which funny enough, I had never realised mean “annunciation” and “conception”, roughly.

One of them lives in Italy, the other moved as a kid, with her parents to Australia.

“We” migrated, like storks, like birds searching for better worlds, like humans.

Human Migration

Humans have always migrated from one locality to another, sometimes more, sometimes less. We moved across the globe, and we moved from country to cities, or cities to country. We moved for warmth, more money, more safety, change, or self-actualization. Some of us move for love

Anthropology has historically always been interested in migration as part of human behaviour.

Important theories in the social sciences such as world-systems theory were used to map out large-scale processes that induced migratory patterns and to study how economic and political undercurrents affected individual people or small groups as they were swept up in the migratory steams of the mid-20th century. In the 1990s, the cultural and social dimension of migration increasingly took precedence over the earlier, economic one.

Different needs for migrating have been discussed over the years, as well as different nomenclatures of “types of migration.” For example:

• internal migration: moving but only between cities (internal in relation to country) or state/country (while staying in the same continent)
• external migration: moving state, nation, or across continents.
• emigration: moving from one country to another
• immigration: moving to a new country
• return migration: going back to where one’s from
• seasonal migration: moving according to labour or climate conditions

After growing up in Italy, I emigrate and “migrated back” to my mother’s home. Australia. A melting pot of many beautiful cultures. We shall remember that we, humans, are from everywhere, and belong to places. We don’t own land in nature.

But, the history of migration and colonization of my country is also a bloody history. White Australians have “stolen” the land of the Aboriginals and declared this country “terra nullius,” nobody’s land. And although Aboriginal Australians do not think of themselves as owners, they were here. They were here for thousands and thousands of years, taking care of this humongous land. They have been the custodian of Australia, and all Australians, of any sub-culture, should keep that in mind.

On that note, I would like to pay respect to the traditional owners of the land I stand on, and where I write from, the Wurundjeri people.

I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land. I would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians.

Grandmas I love you both, Grandma; I miss you.

Thank you, R. Rangan Ph.D., for the tag in another amazing prompt.

From the prompt:

[…] if you have a favorite grandparent or older caregiver’s story, or perhaps you are a grandparent yourself, we would love to read about it :)

**This story is part of the S&S Prompt series — science-inspired prompts to get you inspired — Our dear readers — have a little fun exercising your artistic creativity and write a science-inspired story — the format is entirely up to you — haiku, sciku, limerick, poetry, prose, painting, etc. — if you do — feel free to publish it anywhere on medium, just tag it with #SnSPrompt.

Grandmother Hypothesis. A sciku inspired by Anthropology | by R. Rangan Ph.D. | Science & Soul | Apr, 2021 | Medium

Tagging people, I would love to read grandparents stories from:

yesnodunno, La campana di vetro, Mattia Zaminga, Terry Mansfield, Carlos Garbiras, Annamaria Illiano, Midori by the Sea, Roberto Quezada-Dardon, Rochelle Silva, Kasun Ranasinghe