Remembering experience: Public memorials are not just about the dead anymore

This article considers a shift in public memorialization towards the remembrance of experience, rather than death. Drawing on research into Australian public memorials to lived experiences of loss and trauma from 1985 to 2015, I compare the trends identified in that research with similar memorial projects internationally. I have found that the emergence of memorials to lived experience is an expression, and an expansion, of the kinds of knowledge that can be remembered publicly, and is influenced by discourses of trauma, human rights and transitional justice.

Automated summary

This article explores the shift in public memorialization from death to experience. Through research on Australian public memorials to loss and trauma from 1985 to 2015, the author compares the trends identified with international memorial projects. The emergence of memorials focusing on lived experiences is seen as an expansion of publicly remembered knowledge influenced by discourses on trauma, human rights, and transitional justice.