What if I stayed?
What about the family I left behind?
What does ‘better’ really mean?
How much should I forget?
How much have I lost?

Questions such as these weigh heavy on the lives of migrants. In a constant motion of push and pull, colliding and interlocking, a dilemma is created, underpinning the journey of duality millions continue to take for themselves and their families.

Reflecting on the stages of Ana’s own family’s experience adjusting to life in New Zealand, she traverses the line between personal and universal narratives. Stories collected and contributed by fellow migrants in her Auckland community are portrayed through a range of audio testimonies, home spaces and faces. In placing these narratives alongside each other, the lines are blurred between whose story is whose. The focus shifts from a distinct person and voice to one that is collective.

One’s cultural identity is “a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as of ‘being’. It belongs to the future as much as to the past.” - Stuart Hall, Cultural Identity and Diaspora, 1990.

Each person is individual and traverses a unique path. We cannot ignore the past, nor the questions that arise from it in the present. However, these differences do not completely define us either. In finding comfort in a common struggle, unity can arise between migrants and our communities. Maybe in discovering this common ground, the question is no longer “Who am I?”, but “Who can I become?”

Your memory tastes like lemon and honey
Single channel standard definition video of testimony participants, Testimonies collected from participants, voiced by Ana Garcia
5:27 minutes

ABOUT ME:
Ana Garcia was born in Quezon City, Manila, Philippines and lived there until she was six years old. However, due to the unstable environment of the country, her parents chose to migrate the family to New Zealand where she has lived ever since. Her experiences as a migrant growing up in NZ form the base of her practice as she finds herself in the position between two places, lives and selves. This experience is not only her own, but that of millions of others. Through her work, Ana aims to harness the potential in this liminal space through, questioning existing societal structures of assimilation and integration, cultural identity and hybridity.
We need to create more opportunities for stories from people from all backgrounds and life experiences to be able to be shared and heard. Being ourselves the channels for reframing, changing and challenging the way we see our societies and the people living around us.