From out of the shadows: patterns of colonial genocide memorialisation

Thesis

In the summer of 2020, memorials around the world were torn down and defaced as part of the transnational Black Lives Matter movement. Monuments glorifying colonial figures were confronted and uprooted – as was the narrative of colonial history they represented. What causes society to confront its colonial past? This thesis seeks to answer this question through a study of colonial genocide memorialisation within perpetrating nations, specifically analysing the memorialisation of the Namibian Genocide in Germany, the Native American Genocide in the US and Canada, and the Tasmanian Genocide in the UK.

This thesis is based in the multidisciplinary field of memory studies, with an emphasis on memorialisation, the material forms of memory. Each chapter is a stand-alone microhistory which traces a memorial or museum exhibition from its creation to the present. This interconnected, microhistorical approach enables the analysis of different scales of memory: the local, the national, and the transnational. Taken together, these case studies highlight several important patterns in colonial genocide memorialisation. For example, there have been three distinct chronological eras of colonial genocide memorialisation within perpetrating nations. First, from the time the colonial genocides were being committed, they were memorialised either as victories or as inevitable. The second era began with the criminalisation of genocide at the end of the Second World War, which brought about a wilful neglect of colonial crimes and their associated memorials. The third era, which started around the end of the twentieth century, has been marked by the removal and defacement of memorials glorifying perpetrators and the erection of memorials dedicated to victims. This leads to another major conclusion of this thesis: coming to terms with past colonial crimes is often driven by local activism, which in turn inspires transnational movements. The national level is therefore not the most important element of this process. Additionally, this thesis emphasises that until nations responsible for colonial genocides recognise and memorialise their pasts, they cannot fully address the genocidal systems that continue in their present.

Authors: Baum, BA

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-9erykg29o
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: memory; memorialisation; colonial genocide
• Subjects: Collective memory; Memory; Genocide; History