Planted

A sacred plaque with writings in “soureth” the Assyrian language, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Editorial, Photography
Editorial, Photography

Assyrian: Lives in Diaspora | Romane Iskaria

The aunts of Yucuf Olmez, archive images, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2022.
The aunts of Yucuf Olmez, archive images, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2022.

Romane collected testimonies from members of the Assyrian community between Belgium and France, complementing the stories of her own grandfather and the notebooks of her great-grandfather, who arrived in France from Iran. 

Objects transported during exile, family photos, traditional outfits for festivals, figurines of protective figures from ancient Mesopotamia, landscapes, and maps appear. By blending past and present, Romane photographs by intuition and also uses fiction to evoke this quest for origins present in each of us. 

Part of this project follows a group of 30 young people on a reverse migration journey to Tur Abdin, in Turkey on the border with Syria, a region where their parents and grandparents had emigrated in the 1980s. For most, it is a return to their roots, a first immersion in the villages of their ancestors, where time seems to have stopped. Assyrian keeps a memory, a trace portraying scattered people trying to preserve their connections despite the distance. 

What traces? 

What memories do they keep of their lands?

How to rebuild elsewhere? 

Are they assimilated in the country where they are? How to perpetuate their culture and language: Aramaic? 

A collective memory is created through these reflections.

The house of Ghazel Aziz, Assyrian and Syrian. Ghazel, an architect, drew me her house, which she had to abandon to come and live in Belgium. Romane Iskaria, 2023
The house of Ghazel Aziz, Assyrian and Syrian. Ghazel, an architect, drew me her house, which she had to abandon to come and live in Belgium. Romane Iskaria, 2023.
An archival document collecting the different alphabets and dialects of the Assyrian language called “sureth” Romane Iskaria, 2023.
An archival document collecting the different alphabets and dialects of the Assyrian language called “sureth” Romane Iskaria, 2023.
A return to their roots for young French and Belgian people in their native lands along the Tigris River, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
A return to their roots for young French and Belgian people in their native lands along the Tigris River, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Sacred Assyrian dance, during the return to the roots for young French and Belgian people in their homelands, village of Herbolé, Tur Abdin Turkey, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Sacred Assyrian dance, during the return to the roots for young French and Belgian people in their homelands, village of Herbolé, Tur Abdin Turkey, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
A return to their roots for young French and Belgian people in their native lands along the Tigris River, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
An ancient map of the Hakkari region and northern historical Mesopotamia, straddling present-day Turkey (southeast), Iraq (north) and Iran (west). It notably shows key Assyrian sites marked in red, such as Amida, Balulan, Kurana, Mar Bishoi, Mar Georgis, etc., as well as rivers and mountain ranges (such as Botu Dagh and Siraro Dagh). This region was a major center for Assyrians until the great persecutions and displacements of the early 20th century (notably the Seyfo, the Assyrian genocide of 1915).
An ancient map of the Hakkari region and northern historical Mesopotamia, straddling present-day Turkey (southeast), Iraq (north) and Iran (west). It notably shows key Assyrian sites marked in red, such as Amida, Balulan, Kurana, Mar Bishoi, Mar Georgis, etc., as well as rivers and mountain ranges (such as Botu Dagh and Siraro Dagh). This region was a major center for Assyrians until the great persecutions and displacements of the early 20th century (notably the Seyfo, the Assyrian genocide of 1915).
The village of Herbolé was covered and destroyed by coal mining. Many Assyrian villages in southeastern Turkey are threatened with extinction, but over the past ten years, many Assyrians have been returning to rebuild their homes and save their land. Tur Abdin, Turkey, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
The village of Herbolé was covered and destroyed by coal mining. Many Assyrian villages in southeastern Turkey are threatened with extinction, but over the past ten years, many Assyrians have been returning to rebuild their homes and save their land. Tur Abdin, Turkey, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
The village of Herbolé was covered and destroyed by coal mining. Many Assyrian villages in southeastern Turkey are threatened with extinction, but over the past ten years, many Assyrians have been returning to rebuild their homes and save their land. Tur Abdin, Turkey, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
The village of Herbolé was covered and destroyed by coal mining. Many Assyrian villages in southeastern Turkey are threatened with extinction, but over the past ten years, many Assyrians have been returning to rebuild their homes and save their land. Tur Abdin, Turkey, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Jaré, For the community of Malkie, (Al-Malikiyah in Arabic and Dêrik in Syriac) in northeast Syria, “Jaré” is a moving memory. In the countryside, during very hot nights, Assyrian families slept on the roofs of their houses in a large bed that they all built together. , Al-Malikiyah Dêrik Syrie, a memory reactivated in Brussels, Belgium by Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Jaré, For the community of Malkie, (Al-Malikiyah in Arabic and Dêrik in Syriac) in northeast Syria, “Jaré” is a moving memory. In the countryside, during very hot nights, Assyrian families slept on the roofs of their houses in a large bed that they all built together. , Al-Malikiyah Dêrik Syrie, a memory recreated in Brussels, Belgium by Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Back to the origins in the village of Keferze in Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
Back to the origins in the village of Keferze in Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
A return to her roots for Samantha, a Turkish woman living in Belgium, watching the last rays of the sun above the Tigris River, Tur Abdin Türkiye, Romane Iskaria, 2023.
A memory inspired by a ritual recounted by my great-grandfather in his notebooks of his life in Iran, Romane Iskaria, 2022.
A memory inspired by a ritual recounted by my great-grandfather in his notebooks of his life in Iran, Romane Iskaria, 2022.
Self-portrait Romane Iskaria, in search of my origins through a collective memory of the Assyrian community, 2022
Self-portrait Romane Iskaria, in search of my origins through a collective memory of the Assyrian community, 2022

Words and Photography by Romane Iskaria

Romane Iskaria is a French photographer and artist based in Brussels, Belgium (1997). The photographer sheds light on injustices affecting marginalized communities through an approach that blends documentary and fiction. Her images, imbued with a sense of “Care,” allow the subjects to confront and reclaim their painful histories.

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