A book: because to remember is to honor both past and future

The UnForgotten Refugee Project

The UnForgotten Refugee Project begins with Marija Baričević, and the memories of her children. This memoir, told by Carmen Baričević-Papić, reveals the love of a mother who dies too young, and a widowed father who exhibits bottomless love for his children. Through this story an entire island community comes into profile.

Through the shared experiences of migration and surprisingly, return a story punctuated with flowers, hard work and faith in God comes into focus. Traveling from Ilovik, to a series of UN refugee camps in Italy, to New York and back again, the story of one family reflects the story of many others.

The story of The UnForgotten Refugee Project, is a compilation of memories and more. It illustrates life as a journey where what we love is never truly lost. A picture of a mother gone young, comes into focus through those she loved and the place she called home.

Through this story the poetry, songs, neighbors and assorted characters put a human face on history, and on the workings of a diaspora community held together by their shared experiences.

Told by one daughter to her own daughter, this memoir blends historical research with personal stories, punctuated with the questions of a younger generation.

How do you tell a child about someone they will never meet? How do you make a difficult time in history, come alive in all its beauty, despite all the struggle? How do you begin? You simply begin.

The UnForgotten Refugee project is our way of working together at an entirely new level. In our process we are inviting old friends, relatives, and others who went through the refugee camps of the 1960s to help us reconstruct these journeys of resilience with honesty. In addition to the book these collected stories will be collected into videos and interactive maps to help new arrivals explore the past.

For more information on the full interactive project you can visit ThunderAndStars.com