The Tear Bottle is about the objects families covet as a way of holding on to their past. It is a graphic memoir, told by bickering sisters trying to find out the truth about something their grandmother left behind. Via the medium of cartoons, I invite readers to think about their own family histories. Is it really our heirlooms, or the stories we tell about them that help us to understand ourselves, our whānau and what matters? The story is linked to this heirloom that is not at all what the family thought it was. Through the comedy of family dynamics and with the backdrop of history, I talk about the serious issues of death, grief and forgiveness.
If you’ve ever had to sort through the possessions of a lifetime, you’ve had to weigh up what to keep and what to give away. The wrenching moment where you’ve packed everything up and sent it to the second-hand shop: did I just get rid of something precious without even realising it? Or, you might encumber yourself with your deceased relative’s things because you simply can’t decide which things they treasured the most; getting rid of any of them seems like betrayal! The Tear Bottle acknowledges the grief and guilt that accompanies loss, but it focusses on how fill in the gaps with stories. By making light of the heavy problem of keeping and remembering, it provides its readers with a way to deal with, and tell stories about, the stuff that gets left behind.
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