HUNIA explores the vanishing traditions of the Carpatho-Rusyn people - indigenous to the Carpathian Mountain region of Central Europe - a stateless and often unrecognized group who face the challenges of an endangered language and a history marked by displacement and political instability. By evoking memories of my childhood summers in the mountain village of Tyushka(Ukraine), I took daily walks with my great-grandfather and absorbed my grandmother’s stories of daily life, our heritage, and our historical struggles. The performance gestures toward memory, continuity, and the resilience of a people whose practices have persisted despite displacement and marginalization.

The HUNIA, a traditional garment imbued with both practical and ceremonial significance, stands as a powerful symbol of the Rusyn people's cultural memory and heritage.

The Carpatho-Rusyns are a largely unknown, ethnically and linguistically distinct people living in remote villages scattered throughout the valleys of the Carpathian Mountains in eastern central Europe, indigenous to the Carpathian Mountains and surrounding areas. They have never had a state of their own, except declaring their independence from Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, and was formally annexed by Hungary one day later, existing for a mere 24 hours. Carpatho-Rusyns live as a national minority in Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Ukraine. Carpatho-Rusyns's shortest-lived state in history.

Of the estimated 1.2 to 1.6 million Carpatho-Rusyn, only about 75,000- 90,000 were officially recorded in recent censuses. This is largely because some census authorities don’t recognize them as a distinct ethnic group and because Carpatho-Rusyns intermingle with surrounding communities over time. Among the 250,000 Carpatho-Rusyns who immigrated to the United States, a total of 7583 have been identified. They immigrated between 1880 and 1920 and settled primarily in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, where they worked in the steel mills and coal mines.