Commissioned by Northern Metropolitan Cemeteries Land Manager, the striking monument pays tribute to the memory of the estimated 1.2 million Armenian souls lost during the genocide of 1915 by the Ottoman State.
The opening of the monument was conducted by the Hon. Jonathan Richard O’Dea, member for Davidson and speaker of the NSW Parliament.
Designed, project managed and unveiled by André Vartan-Boghossian.
Artist’s Statement:
“I am not Eternity, but a human being—a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass.” – Epictetus
“Life and death must not be separated, they must be seen as one, as two parts of the same whole. Here we honour the lives of those Armenians who have come before us. We honour those who have spent their lives re-building our traditions with worn out tools and likewise honour those who uphold them today.
The base of the monument, made of stone, represents the Armenian historic culture and knowledge, as a tree rooted in the earth where the Armenians of the past rest. Portrayed in the break of the stone is the Armenian Genocide of 1915, an event which defines the identity of all Armenians today and is where the culture was on the brink of coming to a halt. Out of the trunk blossoms the continuation of this culture in a new form, no longer in stone but in bronze. It is a new culture, augmented by the past and flowering in a home girt by sea, where it will continue to be nourished by those who use their lives to cultivate it.”
– André Vartan-Boghossian, 2021
SDCW Architects 