In November 1944, at the age of 7, my grandmother was rushed onto a small open boat in the middle of the night to escape the occupation of Estonia, and to get to the safety of Sweden. The journey took 4 nights, and the rest of her family that were left behind perished. The Russian invasion of Estonia turned my grandmother into a refugee, and she didn’t return to the island for another 50 years.
In 1994, my grandmother and my mother returned to the island of Saaremaa to look for her home, which had long gone. My grandmother didn't have any memories left of the land, but she did remember one rock in the sea. She then turned around pointing into the overgrown woods and said her house was in there. My mother worked hard to reclaim my great grandfather’s land and to be able to give my grandmother some of the childhood home that had been taken away from her. Getting this land back has now allowed my sister and myself to learn about our heritage.
These images are of my sister, Iona, sitting on an indigenous Estonian horse called Edie. Over the last few years my sister, who is Swedish-Estonian-Danish-Scottish and was raised in London, has taken up riding horses with girls from the island. The Estonian girls don't speak a word of English, yet she still managed to become best friends with them, building their own language to communicate.
These images were taken nearly 28 years after Estonia became free from Russian occupation. In the background, you can still see the Russian seaplane hanger, dark and cold concrete buildings holding a lot of awful memories. You can then see my sister on the white horse in the foreground, bringing something beautiful and bright juxtaposed against the historical impact of trauma. These images are my take on reclaiming your birthland and making something beautiful out of something that was so painful and traumatic.
