Pause for thought on Mother’s Day – Erika Diettes’ SUDARIOS

A Trumpet Fanfare heralded the commencement of a jubilant 125th Anniversary Mass at St Canice’s this time last Sunday.

oday; same place; totally different vibe. I walk into Mass to see black and white images of women’s faces; all but one with eyes closed; anguish written all over them; so palpable. Then a zephyr ruffles a couple of them only amplifying the anguish portrayed. iPhone out of my pocket, I’m compelled to capture this disturbing, but so compelling experience.

“Sudarios is a wrenching series of portraits of witnesses to massacres committed during the Colombian armed conflict in which Colombian society has been battling leftist guerrillas involved in kidnapping and narco-traffic. (The two parties to the conflict are now presently engaged in talks, in Cuba, as Cuba has always been a safe-haven for the guerillas.)

Printed on silk, these portraits tells the stories of twenty grief-stricken victims who, as part of their torture, were forced to watch unspeakable violence perpetrated against their loved ones and were left alive as witnesses. Sudarios is a portrait of the irreparable harm which violence leaves in humanity.”

Colombian artist, Erika Diettes, seen here talking to St Canice's parishioner Margaret Spencer about her photographs of women who had been present at the torture and murder of their loved ones

Fr Chris goes on to remind us that these faces could well represent our own mothers, or women close to us who are also suffering loss of loved ones, and to those mothers whose daughters have been kidnapped in Nigeria; in Syria, or even in our own Stolen Generation.

A pause for thought on this Mother’s Day.

“The exhibition is part of a Sydney-wide Head-On Photo Festival. The work has been displayed in churches in several countries; we welcome it and Erika to St Canice’s.” Fr Chris

This 2-minute Video includes music from the morning’s Mass. Organist Christine Moriarty, and Soloist Greg McCreanor