Art exhibition and catalogue, Madona museum, 2017.
The exhibition consisted of works by Erna Bērziņa (Ķikure), and her two daughters, Inese Birstins and Dzidra Mitchell.
NOTE: English translation of Atgriešanās biographical text is at the end of the page.
TO VIEW: book layout finalTo download
NOTE: English translation of the catalogue text is at the end of the page.
Rough English translation.
English text:
RETURNING HOME
Erna Berzina/Dzelme/Kikure
drawings and texts
[Please note: Erna’s poems, scattered throughout, have NOT been translated.]
PAGE 2.
The Madona Museum thanks Erna Berzina/Dzelme/Kikure’s daughters, Dzidra Mitchell and Inese Birstins, for their generous gift to the museum – the creative legacy of our district’s artist and author – graphic artworks, written archive, personal items. Daughter, Inese Birstins, has invested a lot of work in creating the content of this publication by selecting E. Berzina/Dzelme/Kikure’s artworks and texts. Designer, Nelson Vigneault, has donated his time and talent for its visual presentation. Project author, Inese Jakobi, thanks everyone involved.
PAGE 3.
RETURNING HOME is a memorial album for the older generation of Latvians in exile and younger ones in Latvia and elsewhere in the world. It introduces yet another versatile, talented person from our midst. E. Berzina/Dzelme/Kikure’s drawings, sketches and prints, deeply emblematic, depict on the one hand, refugee life through images of the mother, who died in Germany, migrant life through landscapes that are quite different from home, and on the other hand, hopes and dreams, through the growing up of both daughters in an environment so foreign to the author.
Erna Kikure has already been long known in exile as a writer with 7 short story books, 3 poetry collections, and 2 volumes of The Letters of Kikure and Sarma. In 1991 the author was awarded the Janis Jaunsudrabins Prose Prize (the highest literary honour for Latvians in exile). In Latvia, in 2006, the Madona Museum and the Laudona district council published a selection of stories and poems: Erna Kikure: That land, dear to me.
RETURNING HOME – is a return to one’s place of origin, one’s spiritual birthplace, after fighting for survival, battling with oneself against weaknesses, fears and failures of courage. It is the confirmation of one’s strength and weakness, tenacity and perseverance despite the circumstances, but above all, of an unremitting desire to return home, even if only in memories and dreams.
Inese Jakobi
*****
PAGE 40.
When mum used to go outside somewhere to sketch a landscape, I would go along with her. Once, I was happily skipping ahead of her, singing some song. The narrow path, partly hidden in the grass, led past a small watermill – there were a few of them around there. Mum said: “Watch out that you don’t slip – it’s wet there!” Too late – splash! My feet slid out in different directions and – I landed on my bottom in the puddle! [Inese]
PAGE 75.
LIFE STORY
Erna Kikure/nee Berzina/married Dzelme
writer/artist-printmaker/pianist
PAGE 76. I began my life’s journey in my father’s home, Kikuri, in Laudona district, on October 4th, 1906. Kikuri is on the banks of the river Aiviekste, surrounded by meadows and fields, forests and waters. I was the first child in the family, spoiled by my father and mother. Mother taught me to talk with all sorts of rhymes and folk songs. Later, father taught me writing and arithmetic, and all the other school tasks. I did not attend primary school. I was taught at home.
When my father was sent to war, I studied, together with my younger sister Austra, in our neighbour Malta’s family, with Professor [Nicholajs] Malta‘s sister, Veronika, and Mrs. Malta, Agnes. I successfully started learning piano with Veronika. It has stayed with me all my life. Interruptions during the war and even later did not allow me to realize bigger hopes in this sphere. [Erna]
Photo: Cheese-making in Kikuri on June 22, 1928. Mother, Alvine Berzina, on the left, Erna in the middle. Erna was a member of the Historical Monuments Board’s expedition. Photographer: Janis Students.
This photonegative is included in the Latvian National Register of UNESCO’s “World Heritage” program, Latvian National Historical Museum section: “Traditional Skills and Lifestyle Documentation at the Monument Board of 1924-1931 Expeditions in Photonegatives”.
PAGE 77.
Photo: “Kikuri” in the summer of 1960.
That is how it is now, but when I look at it, I see a much, much more than what this picture shows. Look, sister, and remember – your childhood passes by here, like a movie reel. [Austra’s photo with explanation on the other side.]
PAGE 78. Erna’s father, Janis Berzins (1873-1919), former teacher, later Laudona council elder, was shot by the Bolsheviks in March, 1919.
In January they came to get him. He was out somewhere that day. Mother sent me and my sister to meet him on his way home, to tell him that there were men from the new local council waiting for him – the police. My father was driving with our farmhand. I remember, that I, on a childish impulse, wanted to ask my father not to go home, although mother had not told me to say that. I just was supposed to say that they were waiting for him. Because the farmhand was there, I did not dare to express my small personal thoughts. Maybe he would have listened to them.
But perhaps it was too late for him to escape somewhere.
Father was taken to Madona Prison. I think he stayed there for 10 weeks. Then he was taken to Plavinas. On March 26th, father was shot and buried in a common grave with five others, somewhere past Plavinas.
In the spring, when the Germans came, they were exhumed and buried in the cemetery. Father was missing part of his skull near his temple. The doctor could not tell, if it was the result of a shot at close range or a blow.
On the door jamb of the cellar in which they, the accused, had spent the last day before their sentence was carried out, they found a letter, written in pencil, to us from our father. They cut it out and this thin slab (now broken in the middle) is still with me. The writing is a bit faded, but legible, written with indelible pencil. [Erna]
PAGE 79.
The inscription is in old orthography. […]
The same in modern spelling:
Goodbye dear loved ones! The path from the judgement room to my grave does not bother me, because I have been convicted an innocent. Live your life as you think best, we have to part. I’m indifferent to my own life. I say again goodbye. God be with you, forever. J. Berzins from Laudona’s Kikuri.
Our mother took father’s last words as her lifelong duty – to take care of the children. She gave us a sunny, beautiful, carefree even, and unforgettable childhood and youth. She raised us to be decent people.
I dare to say – a more beautiful and exemplary girl than my sister was hard to find. She in turn married the district elder and for that was sent to Siberia. [Erna]
Photo: Letter from Janis Berziņs to his wife on a wooden plank. Stukmani (Plavinas),March 1919.
PAGE 80.
Photo (top): In the first row Erna and mother Alvine (1st and 2nd from left). In the second row (4th and 5th from left) the owner of the “Ruki” property in Laudona district, Jekabs Lacis and Erna’s sister Austra, before their marriage.
Erna completes Birzu secondary school (later renamed Madona Gymnasium) in 1924 with a matriculation certificate.
I prepared for the examinations with the Malta family and sat for them at Madona Gymnasium [High School]. During the war, the road to Madona was hard. With my younger sister we both froze and pined away in nasty livestock wagons, not knowing when the train would arrive, or what time it would leave. We had to travel home to get our food. Later, in the days of a free Latvia, the time spent at the gymnasium remained one of the most beautiful periods of my life. [Erna]
Photo (bottom): In the middle, drawing teacher Janis Plase, with students. To the right of Plase, Erna (hands under her chin). Otto Gravitis stands on the right.
At the high school, Erna had three brilliant teachers, who contributed to the development of her artistic talents in various directions:
PAGE 81. Janis Abolins for Latvian literature (Madona students called him Little Golden Apple [Abolins = little apple]), painter Janis Plase for drawing, and pianist and future piano master at the Latvian Conservatory, Arvids Daugulis, for music.
Encouraged and prepared by Plase, I registered at the Academy in 1924, and later I studied there in R. Zarrins’ graphic arts studio. What did I gain? I’m sorry to say – at the Academy I did not gain anything especially worthwhile, rather the opposite. Working with Plase, we knew where we were headed, at the Academy we did not. [Erna]
At the same time, Erna studies the piano at the National Conservatory.
I was in Paris for the first time in 1929. Together with a friend from the Academy, we travelled to Paris on her uncle’s merchant ship. There, my sketching opened my way to my graduate work. [Erna]
The numerous museums, exhibitions and the very ambience of Paris enthral the artist, everything seems saturated with art. Full of many, new, stimulating ideas, she returns to Riga and in 1932, with her master thesis “Daugava” in etching technique, she graduates from the Academy as a graphic artist/printmaker. [J. Sarma]
PAGE 82.
After graduation, I worked at Ilukste State Gymnasium and Primary School as a drawing and art history teacher [until the spring of 1940]. Ilukste is in an area that is beautiful and that provides wonderful solitude. (These are two things that have often engaged me for long periods of time.)
Exhibitions?
I participated in Culture Foundation exhibitions, in almost all of them. The Zemgale exhibition, the Jelgava and Daugavpils exhibitions.
I took a year off from work. I was in Belgium in 1939 in the early spring (March, April, May). I worked in printmaking. (At the Brussels Royal Academy of Art you could study for free – studio space and professors were available to graduates from some other art academy.) I was in Paris for the first time in 1929, the second time in 1939, after Belgium. What did I get out of it? The museums, of course. But the couple of months spent in Paris impressed me, not only with what went on inside buildings, but also – on the street. Paris, in my perception, is saturated with history, sun, human breath. Anyone can feel at home immediately in Paris and it belongs to everyone. It seems to me that it is impossible to feel painfully lonely in Paris, etc.
I took part in an ordinary excursion to Finland. Finland also has its own face, full of its own character.
The final year (1940-1941) I worked in Laudona and Saviena elementary schools. [Erna]
Photo (left): Master level students at the graphic art studio of the Latvian Academy of Art in 1932. From the left: Arturs Apinis, Karlis Krauze, Viksne, unknown, Erna Berzina, unknown, Prof. Rihards Zarrins, Elza Druja, Peters Upitis, unknown, Sternbergs, Nikolajs Rikse.
Photo (right): Erna (middle, scarf on her shoulders) with Ilukste Gymnasium graduating students in May, 1936.
PAGE 83.
Photo: The former Saviena Elementary School, where Erna Dzelme worked as drawing teacher in 1941-1942. 1995 photo.
PAGE84.
Then I married and lived in Kikuri, bringing up my daughter. [Erna]
In March 1942 at Madona Hospital, in premises that now serve the museum for their collections and offices, her daughter, Inese, was born.
On June 14, 1941, her three-year-younger sister, Austra Lacis, together with her three small children (Zigurds 9, Gunta 5, Dzintra 2 years old) are seized from their Laudona property “Ruki” and deported to the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia. Father, Jekabs, was not at home that night.
In the summer of 1944, the Dzelme family (Erna, husband Janis, daughter Inese, and Erna’s mother Alvine) abandon Ķikuri and leave Laudona as refugees, later they board a ship that takes them from Liepaja to Gotenhafen near Danzig (now – Gdynia near Gdansk).
After time spent in a camp in Sudetenland in 1945, they find refuge for a couple of months in the home of a farm family near Lienz in Austria.
Then they reach the vicinity of Stuttgart, Germany – first the Sillenbuch refugee camp, later the town of Fellbach. Because they have come from the English zone [of Germany] to the American zone without proper authorization, they are obliged to leave the camp. In Fellbach, they find a private room with a German family.
In May 1946, a second daughter is born – Dzidra.
Photos: Registration of marriage with Janis Dzelme (1907-1985) in Riga, April 10, 1941, and then in their apartment.
PAGE 85.
Latvian kindergarten in Fellbach, 1947. Inese is sitting in the middle, white dress, bow in hair, facing forward.
PAGE 86.
On the 5th of December in 1947 Erna’s mother, Alvine, dies. She is buried in the Fellbach cemetery.
From Germany we headed to Australia in 1949. That was the best thing that we could do. And I never had to regret that: Australia is a strange, beautiful land and the people are good. Refugees need that. There are fewer things that compare with what has been lost, and if you are not put down by mean people, you can restart and continue your broken life. [Erna]
Photo (top right): Erna and Janis Dzelme, with daughters, ready for passport photos, before leaving Germany. Fellbach, 1949.
Photos (bottom left): Inese at grandmother Alvine Berzins’ grave in Fellbach in 1969. Photo (bottom right): Former US Navy ship General Omar Bundy leaves the port of Naples with over 400 European emigrants (more than 25% of them are Latvians) on their way to Australia.
PAGE 87.
Photo (top left): Transport to the ship in Naples on June 11th, 1949. Erna and the girls are to the left of the man in the white shirt.
Photo (top right): Refugees lined up, waiting to board ship in Naples, June 11, 1949. Erna in hat, Dzidra (only her bow is visible), and Inese.
Bagnoli, Naples. The last few steps on European soil before boarding. [Janis Dzelme’s handwritten note on the back of the photo.]
Photo (bottom): Janis, Erna and Dzidra in white hats. Inese in front of Erna.
PAGE 88.
They reach Australia on 8th July, 1949.
The first two years, which are to be served in government specified jobs, the family spends in refugee camps, first a short stay in Bathurst, then in Greta, New South Wales.
Erna works in the warehouse, where clothing is distributed, later, in the hospital as an aide. She continues to draw, gives piano lessons to children in the camp.
PAGE 89.
Photo (bottom right): Erna in striped dress, third from the right (Inese sitting in front) with Australian Refugee Aid Committee members in Greta. This group organizes an exhibition of her artwork in camp premises in 1951.
PAGE 90.
In 1952 the Dzelmes buy a farm property near Wyong, about 100 kilometres from Sydney.
The farm turns out to be poor – on top of a hill, the land is dry, unproductive, the house half-finished, they have to clear and prepare the fields themselves.
Her husband forbids Erna to waste any time with drawing. She secretly turns to writing, at moments when her husband is away from home, or tired, late at night, when he is already asleep, because she is not allowed to write either.
They work on their farm – fields where they grow beans and tomatoes for sale, keep chickens and ducks. The day’s rhythm is governed by the needs of the cowshed and farm work, cooking and laundry. The only rare respite is a stolen hour at the old piano. “What depresses me is that I am wasting my life. In order to tolerate my everyday life, it seems I have to give up on the idea that I am a human being, a woman, I have be so dumb that I don’t feel anything,” she writes to Janis Sarma in Melbourne, March 8th, 1956. This elderly and, after his son’s death, very lonely writer is her one and only spiritual support in these difficult years, when there is no other goal in life than to provide basic existence for the family, ensuring the girls the opportunity to get an education. E. Kikure and J. Sarma correspond for many years, at first on business only, then more personally, at times very intensely. Some of these letters have been published in two volumes. [D. Zvirgzdina]
In 1958, to ensure better health care, scholarships for the girls, job opportunities, etc., the Dzelmes, like many other migrants, take out Australian citizenship.
Photo (bottom left): Near the house, a pile of waste that has to be carefully removed, because it is infested with funnel webs, extremely poisonous spiders, 1952.
PAGE 91.Photo (bottom left): Cleaning the yard at the new rural property with homemade rakes. At the right, the half-finished house, 1952.
Photo (bottom right): Later, when the yard is clean, the family cow checks out the daisies.
PAGE92.
After 18 years in Siberia, sister Austra is back in Latvia. Her children were sent back earlier. Daughter Dzintra says:
After the end of the war in 1945, we returned to Laudona in September, in a children’s transport train, and were brought up by foster parents, which was not easy for them either, but we were not sent away a second time. We never saw our own father again. He managed to avoid deportation, but his path took him to the West. In Canada I saw his grave, we were not destined to meet again. [Stars, Madona district newspaper, June 15, 2006.]
Photo: After 18 years in Siberia, sister Austra returned to Latvia. Meeting her now adult daughter Gunta, 1960.
My mother died for me. I ought to vindicate her premature departure. She witnessed my life […]. She watched until she could stand it no longer.
What she said – I have kept in my mind and I try to hold on to it. Although I have still put off the most important part: she said – that my husband should leave, that we must not stay together. The first one to be destroyed would be me, she said, and then the children. The last would be he (my husband). I know that is true, and I have stayed aware of that all these years. I dare not collapse. My children would be next.
PAGE 93.
I would have collapsed long ago if it were not for the fact that my mother was the one who went, as it were in my place. I’m holding on. But how long will my strength last? [Erna]
Erna’s health does not withstand the heavy labour on the poor farm property, nor her spouse’s mental abuse in her home life. She is seriously ill, and the doctor says that, if she does not leave this life, she has no hope of recovery.
She had hoped to hold out till the younger daughter, Dzidra, completes school – Inese is no longer living at home, she is a student at Sydney University. After hesitating in uncertainty for a long time, encouraged by her daughters, carrying a small suitcase, she walks one and a half kilometres to the bus, then catches the train from Wyong to Sydney.
In Sydney, she spends the night in a cheap room at a travellers’ shelter – she does not have enough money for a hotel. The family of one of Inese’s friends offers her a room in return for help with cleaning the house and doing the cooking.
Such will now be Erna’s future life for some time in Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle. Her teacher training is not recognized in Australia and her English language skills are still less than adequate.
The biggest difficulty will be the constant lack of money. A housekeeper’s wage, when board is included, barely provides pocket money, and does not cover other needs (clothes, dentist, etc.), not to mention transportation, writing paper, hairdresser, etc.
Photo (bottom): Cultural and Writer Days in Melbourne, Christmas, 1960, visiting the writer Janis Sarma (1884-1883) – Erna’s mentor and literary supporter. From the right: Janis Sarma, writer Ella Kreismane, Erna, E. Kreismane’s daughter Baiba.
PAGE 94.
Erna is offered a solo exhibition of her drawings and prints at the Latvian House.
However, there is no opportunity to create new works. She continues to write whenever time and energy allow, signing herself as E. Kikure. Participates in literary evenings.
Her work begins to appear in the newspaper, The Australian Latvian, as well as in the Australian Latvian Yearbook. In this array of stories and portrayals E. Kikure reveals herself as a narrator with a lyric, delicate, and, at the same time, concrete view of the world and of life. It is expressed in an individual, impressionistic, fresh way. Her themes touch on the phenomena of life in exile, as well as events in her homeland. Starting in 1958, E. Kikure’s first lyric poems appear, but soon they can be read in the anthology of exile poetry, Dzejas un Sejas, and in many diaspora journals (e.g. Jauna Gaita)..
E. Kikure’s story “Our neighbour” was awarded first prize in its prose competition by the jury of the Latvian Press Association of Australia. [from J. Sarma’s afterword in the book, Our Neighbour.]
In 1962 the Latvian Press Association publishes Erna Kikure’s story collection Our Neighbour as the first in its series of works by Australia’s Latvian authors.
1963 Inese graduates from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, specializing in French language and literature.
In 1967 Dzidra acquires a Diploma in Art and Teacher’s Certificate from the National College of Art in Newcastle.
Photo (left): Mother with daughters on April 23, 1963, at Inese’s graduation from Sydney University.
Photo (right): Erna reading her work at her first author’s evening in Sydney, 1961.
PAGE 95.
Photo (top): Three story illustrations (Erna’s own linocuts) in her book Our Neighbour.
Photo (bottom left): The first book in the series of works by Australia’s Latvian authors: Our Neighbour. Author’s illustrations and cover (linocuts). Published by “Sala” 1962.
Photo (bottom right): Author, Erna Kikure, at the “christening” of her first book, Our Neighbour, in Sydney, 23rd December, 1962.
PAGE 96.
In 1968, Inese and husband, Laimons Birstins, travel to Europe, explore it from one end to the other – including Eastern Europe – spend six weeks in Russia, where they meet Erna’s sister, Austra, in Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. Austra tells them about Siberia. This is a deeply emotional experience for Inese.
After that I cried for a week – about what I was told, but also because she was my first close relative. We had no relatives at all in Australia, and she reminded me so much of my mum – she looked like her! [Inese]
From the fall of 1968, the Birstins spend one year working in Damme, a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany, where Inese teaches English at the Gymnasium (high school).
One school holidays we drove to Fellbach, we found the house where we lived in 1949. While we were walking around photographing, a gentleman noticed us and came out on the street and asked, if we were looking for something? It turned out that he was the owner. When I explained that I had lived here when I was little, he surprised me, saying, “Oh, yes, I remember your family! At that time I was young and my father was still alive. But wait! We have a package here, that arrived in the mail right after your departure, addressed I believe for your mom. I’ll get it right away!”
He brought out a cardboard box full of postcards, sent from the printer back then. Mum had ordered a couple of her drawings to be printed in the form of postcards, probably hoping to sell them. It had been stored in the attic – for 20 years! Slightly yellowed, a little decorated with mould. [Inese]
Photo (left): In 1968, Erna’s sister, Austra Lace, arrived unexpectedly in Leningrad to meet Inese and her husband Laimons, who were permitted to travel within Russia but not into Latvia.
Photo (right): The Birstins’ VW bus in 1968 in front of the house in Fellbach, where the Dzelme family had lived after the war – the three lower windows on the left were their room. Inese is on the right.
PAGE 97.
Photo (bottom left): After 20 years, in 1968, Inese meets the present owner of the Fellbach home, a teenager back then. They had saved the package addressed to E. Dzelme, which had arrived shortly after her departure for Australia in 1949. In it were three types of postcards reproducing the mother’s drawings, intended for sale.
PAGE 98.
In 1969, Inese and Laimons pay for Erna’s ticket for a trip to Germany. When the school year in Damme ends, all three set out on their way (with VW bus and tents) across Southern Europe via Austria to Italy, along the Mediterranean to Spain, across to the west coast, then north to Paris.
From Paris, they fly to Toronto, Canada, to visit Jekabs Lacis, Erna’s sister Austra’s husband, Inese’s godfather. After his family was deported to Siberia, Jekabs managed to come to Canada and, believing that his wife and children were gone, had married a second time.
Erna returns to Australia, the Birstins remain in Canada, as it turns out – permanently.
PAGE 100.
Erna lives in Wollongong, sublets rooms in her flat, works as a housekeeper, gives piano lessons, joins a sewing group, sings in a choir, continues writing, meets Latvian writers.
On March 12, 1972, they arrange a Literary Evening for Erna. Sydney Latvian actors read her texts, a choir sings Eizens Freimanis‘ arrangements of her poetry.
Photo (top left): Erna models her embroidery on a pant suit, created by a colleague, in a fashion show of handcrafts. Sydney, 1971.
Photo (top right): Members of the Wollongong sewing group participate in an international Craftsmen’s Market. Erna is second from the right, 1970.
PAGE 101:
In the fall of 1972, Erna travels to be with her youngest daughter Dzidra, who, with husband Clive Mitchell, has been living in England for some years now.
In September, 1973, the Mitchells’ son is born, Erna’s grandson, Talis.
PAGE 102.
Erna’s “Kukazina” years begin. She is nicknamed Kukazina [a well-known character in Latvian literature] by Latvian writers in Australia and America – because of her regular travels between both daughters, living a half or a full year with Dzidra, who has returned to Australia, or with Inese in Canada.
Hello, Modern Kukazina, Are you perhaps thinking of coming this way again? I received your manuscript as well as two separate stories. Love and regards, Nina Luce [Critic, Australia]
Occasionally some sketches appear in Erna’s diaries.
Photo (bottom left): Nina Luce (critic), Erna Kikure, Elga Rodze-Kisele (poet Elga Leja), at Sydney Latvian House, following the publication of the book The Letters of Kikure and Sarma in 1981.
PAGE 104.
In 1984, Erna switches to living permanently with Inese in Canada – first in Banff, where Inese heads the Textile Department at the International Art Centre. There, Erna enjoys the mountains, art, ballet, theatre performances, but especially music. With free tickets supplied by her daughter, Erna can attend concerts and even rehearsals practically every day.
Photo (top left): Erna has her own bee colony in British Colombia, Canada, 1976.
Photo (bottom): Erna Kikure’s Author’s Evening in Sydney on March 30, 1980. Participants from the left: Elga Leja, Hilda Dukure, Vaira Zemite, Spodris Klauverts, Erna Kikure, Lija Gailite, Zeltite Nice.
PAGE 105.
In 1985, they move to Montreal, where Inese lectures in Textiles at Concordia University.
PAGE 106.
In June 1987, Erna participates in Writers’ Week in Kalamazoo, USA.
In 1988, Inese begins to publish Erna’s books in small editions.
Photo (top left): Erna’s poetry book Artava, 1988. Reproduction of Dzidra’s painting on the cover.
Photo (top right): Erna’s book of short stories, 1993. On the cover, one of Inese’s textile works. (Madona Museum collection)
PAGE 107.
Photo (top right): Autumn in Canada. Inese and Erna’s apartment in Montreal was on Maple Street (rue des Erables)!
PAGE 108.
In February 1989, news comes that her sister, Austra, died in January. The recent letter, that Erna had written to her sister, had arrived in Latvia – the day after her sister’s death.
1989, March 2. Greetings Kukazina! Pardon me for calling you that, but I heard others do it during Writers’ Week in Kalamazoo, because you apparently travel like Kukazina, from one daughter to the other. Only your travels are further than Kukazina’s – from Canada to Australia. […]
It would be good to see you at LARA’s RN [Writers’ Week] Los Angeles from June 23rd to 30th. It leads in to the USA West Coast Song Festival, which will take place at Long Beach, CA, from June 31 until July 5. […]
I will say – see you at the RN and the song festivities in sunny California and, once again, thank you for ‘Artava’! Karlis Zvejnieks [LARA’s – Latvian Writers’ Association President]
Erna accepts the invitation and travels to the Writers’ Week in Los Angeles.
Photo: Writers’ Week in Los Angeles, 23-30, June 1989. From the left: Margarita Biezaite, Roberts Muks, Skaidrite Rubene (partly hidden), Biruta Zvejniece, Karlis Zvejnieks, Maris Caklais, Erna Kikure (with coat over her arm), Velta Saulite, Elza Reinberga, Mara Zalite, Alberts Bels, Dagmara Vallena, Janis Gorsvans.
PAGE 109.
In the fall of 1989, Erna once more has to follow her daughter’s job to Calgary, where Inese buys a house.
PAGE 110.
In the fall, Erna receives the Janis Jaunsudrabins Prose Award – the most important prize for literature, given biennially to an author in exile.
Greetings Kukuzina! Congratulations! This year the Janis Jaunsudrabins Award Evaluation Committee (Nora Kula, Gunars Salins, Juris Silenieks) decided unanimously to give the prize to you! So you now join the group of prominent recipients, which includes Ilze Skipsna, Margarita Kovalevska, Astride Ivaska, Benita Veisberga, Laima Kalnina, Aina Zemdega, Indra Gubina, Janis Klidzejs, Arturs Baumanis, Andrejs Irbe and others.
The jurors write:
NORA KULA: When one reads Kikure’s prose, one gets the feeling, as if one were spending time in a gallery filled with small, seemingly fragile, almost evanescent impressions. However, they do not fade, rather, they become engraved in the reader’s memory.
GUNARS SALINS: With her three books of recent years Erna Kikure, it seems, has opened for us not only her home, but also all her cabinets and chests, family albums, reams of poetry, sketchbooks, memoirs of her youth, her most recent stories, pages of her refugee and exile chronicles, reflections about life, on art, love – about everything. And everything is really interesting, very meaningful.
And truly her own.
PROF. JURIS SILENIEKS: In Kikure’s prose, form is welded to thought. Her style is controlled, often spare, but not without lyrical undertones. Her descriptions of nature are interwoven with meaningful thinking. And, even though her themes, in general, are everyday situations, the author’s watchful eye sees through banality and, with somewhat ironic or tragic observation, finds the unchanging qualities of human existence, which are judged by many to be the domain of classical literature.
May Erna Kikure’s wisdom and writings, accumulated in the ebb of life, delight for a long time to come – both old and young! Janis Jaunsudrabins’ Prose Award chairman, Karlis Zvejnieks.
PAGE 112.
In February Erna leaves for the last time for Australia – to say goodbye to Latvian writers and artists.
1992, May 7th.
Dear Kukazina!
I hope you’re happily back from Australia. Your manuscript [the three books that were awarded the J. Jaunsudrabins Prize, collected into one volume Majas un Celi] is at the moment being assembled and corrected by Astra Moora – LARA’s typesetter. We expect the book to come out later this summer, together with Klara Zale’s poems.
Greetings to you! Karlis Zvejnieks
Producer Karlis Pamse creates a theatre scenario from Erna Kikure’s letters to Janis Sarma and themes form J. Sarma’s novel “Game without rules”. It is performed at the National Theatre by actress Mara Zemdega and K. Pamse himself. The Riga Musical and Poetical Theatre’s premiere of “… and the road goes on forever” takes place in the concert hall “Ave Sol!” on September 16, 1991. It is then played on several stages in Latvia, including Madona, and also shown on Latvia Television.
March 1993 Erna Kikure suffers a stroke, but gradually recovers most of her movement, continues writing (but not drawing) and plays with her right hand, since her left is more affected. Her handwriting gradually worsens, her sight and hearing begin to fail.
To help her read and play, Inese makes magnified copies of sheet music, pages of books, and letters received. Right up to her final years, she continues to be interested in the whole world, in all that is going on.
Dzidra comes and spends a couple of months with her every summer.
Photo (bottom right): Karlis Pamse and Mara Zemdega, on stage in Latvia, in a production of “… and the road goes on forever”.
PAGE 113.
At the piano in 1999 in Calgary. This piano has travelled with her everywhere, all the way from Australia.
PAGE 114.
After Latvia regains its independence, when the opportunity to recover her “Ķikuri” property arises, Erna writes a letter to the Laudona Council. She dreams of rebuilding her home (it was burnt down, only the walls of the barn are left); building a colony there for writers and artists, similar to what she saw in Banff, a place to work and renew one’s creative forces, relax, find inspiration on the beautiful banks of the Aiviekste.
It was too late. She did not have enough strength left, time had marched on too far. In 1995, when “Ķikuri” was returned to her, Erna was not able to be there when her daughters travelled to Latvia to receive the deeds to the property.
Photo (top): 1995 Dzidra sits on the remains of the Ķikuri home’s foundations, 1995.
PAGE 115.
Photo (bottom): Dzidra, Inese and Laudona Council Deputy Chairman, Ruta Vizane, at the handing over of the Ķikuri property documents, in the Council’s premises, in May, 1995.
PAGE 118. Erna died on New Year’s Day, 2003.
Writer returns to her native Laudona.The first Saturday of October greets us with gray mist and silent calm. The sun emerges out of Aiviekste’s fog, yellow leaves fall. Writer, artist musician, farmer – Erna Dzelme, born Berzina, or Erna Kikure, has returned to her birthplace. Gradually, former and current Laudonites arrive at the Laudona Cemetery Chapel – daughter Inese Birstins from Canada and Dzidra Mitchell from Australia, former neighbours and relatives – the Birnitis and Bleiva families, rural municipality representatives, a mixed musical ensemble and students, Madona Museum staff. You can hear the sound of quiet songs and fragments from the writer’s works, greetings have been sent by poet Andrejs Eglitis and producer Karlis Pamse. Flowers lie on the grave. In the municipality’s Culture Hall, during the memorial ceremony an hour later, actress Mara Zemdega reads fragments from Erna Kikure’s correspondence with writer Janis Sarma, theatre producer Edgars Kramins and writer Laima Muktupavela share their impressions. On a table nearby are the author’s books, needleworked items and some memorabilia. She would have wanted to talk to everyone gathered here. Latvia – Germany – Australia – Canada – Latvia. The circle is closed, but in the centre remain her works – art prints, stories, drawings, poetry, memories. Riches that Laudona’s younger generation will now need to spread further – to tell the whole of Latvia about one more outstanding personality, about her contribution to Latvian culture. [Laima Gara, Stars, 18.10.2005]
Photo (bottom): Writer Laima Muktupavela wonders: “How many people are buried here? It looks like three.”
PAGE 119.
Last Saturday, I was present at a beautiful, sad moment. It was the funeral of poet, Erna Kikure, who died in Canada. […] On the poet’s gravestone was this inscription: Erna Kikure, poet, Erna Dzelme, nee Berzina. How many people, then, were buried here? It looked like three. Berzina was a painter, a teacher. Dzelme was a housewife, married to a farmer exiled to Australia. The third was the poet who, to escape from spiritual loneliness, wrote verse. Erna Kikure’s and writer Janis Sarma’s correspondence has been collected in the book The Letters of Kikure and Sarma. The book has been recognized as a valuable part of our cultural heritage. [Laima Muktupavela, Diena, 13.10.2005]
Photo (top): Erna Dzelme, nee Berzina, 4.10.1906. – 1.1.2003. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas [Erna’s favourite poet]
Photo (bottom left, above): Actress Mara Zemdega says: “I have the impression, as if I had come to my own funeral!” explaining how closely she had identified with the role of Erna that she played in the performance of “… and the road goes on forever”.
Photo (bottom left, below): Theatre producer, Edgars Kramins, speaking at the memorial in Laudona municipality’s Cultural Hall.
Photo (bottom centre): Madona Museum staff member, Dace Zvirgzdina, talks about Erna’s memorabilia, donated to the museum’s collection.
Photo (bottom right): Erna’s grave, next to her father’s grave. In the background, Erna’s goddaughter, Biruta Birnite, with husband Janis.
PAGE 121.
She has always been on a road, on a bridge – not only between the two banks of a river, but between music and fine art, between the necessity to work physically and the desire to work with literature, between daughters in Canada and Australia, between her native language and English. We will only be able to consider her homecoming finally complete, when her works are published here in her homeland. [D. Zvirgzdina]
PAGE 122.
[List of books by Erna]
Documentary perspective, essay by Nelson Vigneault [in English.]