A Stitch in Time

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A life-long passion for craft led Maree Blanchard to unravel the mystery of her father’s past and make her loving contribution to the Australian Citizenship Quilt.

“I’ve been a ‘SCQuilter’ for a couple of years,” says Maree Blanchard. “That’s what members of the Southern Cross Quilting Group call themselves. It’s an online group for Australians and New Zealanders who are passionate about quilting. On their site I saw the call for quilters to take part in creating the Australian Citizenship Quilt [a project to pay tribute to our multicultural heritage].

At first I wasn’t interested – I’m pretty busy – but something kept leading me back.”

Maree has always worked with her hands. Her mother was a milliner and Maree followed her into the trade. “I did an apprenticeship straight out of school,” she explains. “My mother said, ‘Everyone needs a trade’, so I took her advice, learned what I could then went into the theatre as a dancer.

“There was plenty of dancing work around in those days,” she remembers, “but in the end my mother turned out to be right about needing a trade.”

Show business was part of Maree’s life long before she took to the stage herself. Maree’s mother, Betty Viazam, spent many years working for Moray, the hat makers, but also had a long career as a theatrical milliner. “She was a stunning milliner,” says Maree. “She could make something out of nothing. Over the years, she did everything from front covers for Vogue to pieces for the ABC, stage productions and films.”

After her days in the theatre, Maree’s life mirrored her mother’s – she moved on to make specialised hats for collectable dolls. “She was a fiery woman,” says Maree fondly of her mother, “and we lived together until she died. I grew up in this house; my mother bought my father out when he left.”

Maree remembers the marriage as a tempestuous one. “Mum was an Anglo-Irish lass who married this dashing Russian immigrant. They fell in love, there’s no doubt about that, but it was a disastrous marriage. In the end, she basically paid him to go.”

For many years, Maree’s father, Gregory Viazim, remained a mystery to her. Maree married Terry Blanchard in 1972 and they had two sons Anton, 30, and Jeremy, 27. Family and work took up most of her time and any that was spare was spent in her mother’s workshop, at the rear of the house.

Then, in 1997, Betty Viazim died. “It was awful,” says Maree. “We had lived in that house my entire life and then she died in hospital on Christmas Day.” With the death of her mother, Maree’s desire to know more about her father became stronger. And it was the absence of a connection to her father and his life that led to Maree’s eventual involvement with the Australian Citizenship Quilt.

“I realised that my mother had been an incredibly strong figure in my life,” she says, “but on my father’s side there was just this gaping hole.”

In 2001 Maree discovered that the National Archives of Australia had begun to release its documents online, including those that told the stories of individual immigrants to Australia. “I searched for my father,” says Maree, “and there he was: it was as simple as that. It turned out that I had my first son on my father’s birthday.”

Words: Francesca Newby