From Alsunga to Australia and Back

The Alsunga folk costume once belonged to Latvian-Australian Māra Siksna. The brooch, woven belt and shawl were given to Māra by Elfrīda Bikauniece, who bought parts of the Alsunga folk costume while walking around and knocking on people’s doors in the Alsunga area in the 1930s. The large antique brooch was given as a gift – it was found in the clay while digging the foundations for a barn. When Elfrīda fled Latvia in 1944, she used the colourful Alsunga shawl as a rucksack into which she folded the antique brooch and a few favourite paintings. “During difficult times, I often felt that the old brooch was like a talisman, a guardian angel that helped me escape from danger and gave me spiritual strength,” Elfrīda told Māra.

In 1976, when the “Saules josta” dance ensemble was about to embark on an Australian and world tour with a dance and song performance, Māra Siksna decided to make the missing parts of the Alsunga folk costume so that she could show the antique brooch, belt and shawl to the world. Together with Māra, the Alsunga folk costume has been on stage at the Sydney Opera House; has performed with “Saules josta” in Australia, Canada, the USA, Sweden and England; and has taken part in Australian Latvian Arts Festivals and Latvian Song Festivals in Canada, Germany and Latvia. Māra has also worn the folk costume at political street demonstrations for Baltic freedom and at formal receptions at the Brisbane Parliament. The folk costume has now returned to Alsunga, the land of the Suiti people.