Abstract
ABSTRACT Historical trauma deeply affects second-generation refugees, who carry the emotional scars endured from their families’ past and present struggles. For conflict-fleeing refugees, state-imposed erasure of histories exacerbates trauma. This article presents findings from a Decolonizing PAR (Participatory Action Research) study with second-generation Toronto Tamil refugees, using memory-box autobiography methods to co-create knowledge about historical trauma and community healing. Two key questions were addressed: a) What are their memories and postmemories, growing up amidst the genocide in Sri Lanka? and b) What collective threads of historical trauma and intergenerational healing emerge from their narratives? Through historical image-based narrative analysis, five threads were identified: (1) intergenerational memories of joy as resistance; (2) fragmented, evolving transmission of postmemories; (3) legacies of state violence; (4) community knowledge and activism; (5) disconnect and diaspora guilt. Through constructing architectures of counter remembrance as public narrative, intergenerational refugee communities can use memory to heal and resist erasure.
Published Version
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