Negotiating Trauma and Cultural Dislocation Through Memory: South Sudanese in Western Sydney

Abstract

This chapter applies Aleida Assmann’s suggestion that memory is a social and dynamic process and Michael Rothberg’s concept of memory as multidirectional to investigate how South Sudanese reconstruct collective memory in an Anglo-centric but multicultural Australian society. Trauma and cultural identity narratives emerge as dominant themes. The chapter demonstrates how the trauma discourse as the justification of the provision of settlement support services and cultural discourse promoted by multicultural policies legitimizes the reconstruction of South Sudanese collective memory and identity based on trauma and cultural narratives. However, since the emerging collective memory is based on memory that is multidirectional in nature and open to influence, the chapter concludes that South Sudanese reconstructed collective memory is flexible enough to incorporate aspects of the dominant Anglo-Australian culture.