Reflections on Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial

This chapter presents a conversation between the authors as they reflect on “Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial” (RRM), an Indigenous-led international comparative research project centring on the memorialisation of the Australian Frontier Wars and the need for visibility and truth-telling in the public sphere. Connecting with international sites and projects to memorialise genocide, state violence and war can raise the urgency in talking about sites and histories in Australia implicated in the Frontier Wars. This chapter considers methods to create a research space that can hold different viewpoints about memorialisation and the ongoing impacts of traumatic histories in order to recognise forms of memorialising that are not bound by narrowly defined Western conventions. Inspired by Indigenous-led projects and local methodologies from across the world, the authors consider how memorials can be embedded through cultural practices such as smoking ceremonies, looking after ‘Country’, or healing walks as well as in artworks and major urban developments. The researchers consider the findings of the RRM project and forum, focusing on the kinds of methodologies needed in these spaces of trauma, the importance of grassroots voices, and land as a living entity that can drive memorial processes.