Survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 took refuge across the globe. Traumatized by unspeakable brutalities and ongoing denial, the idea of returning to their homeland was unthinkable. But decades later, some children and grandchildren felt compelled to travel back, having heard stories of family wholeness in beloved homeland houses, towns, and villages—once in Ottoman Armenia, today in the Republic of Turkey.

Traveling with pilgrims between 2007 and 2015, Carel Bertram uncovers their actions of agency through which they Identify their homeland as holy ground, invoke ancestral spirits, and construct soul satisfying rituals that add restorative, connective repairs to lost ancestral histories.

Carel Bertram is Professor Emerita of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Deptartment of Humanities, San Francisco State University. Focusing on the visual culture of the Ottoman and post-Ottoman eras, she studies how we use space and place to represent ourselves-and to create historical consciousness.