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Sites of memory, including processes associated with memorialisation, if negotiated professionally and with a view to community-based interests, can offer an opportunity for individuals, families and groups in society to address past traumas and lingering pain. In this context, this project focuses on ways to develop professional memorialisation that represents the history of recent events in ways that are representative (and in turn democratic) and which can be developed also for the purposes of social, cultural and personal healing and recovery.
The project poses two key research questions. The first 'What lessons and case-studies can Iraq learn from to develop effective community-based memorialisation? and 'in what ways can memorialisation in Iraq be prepared to represent the interests of conflict-affected communities?'
This project emerged out of a context in which Iraq and its peoples have suffered, especially since the 1980s up to the present moment, from over four decades of war and conflict, leaving its population heavily scarred and exhausted by those events and the legacies that continue to shape society. It brings together key actors and organisations in this field, working with a common goal to develop community memorialisation in Iraq.
The Organization of Iraq Victims of Speicher works with 4,000 families in Iraq and is the country's only organization representing the interests of those who perished at Camp Speicher and in the fighting preceding ISIS' takeover of the site. It has offices in Nassiryah and in Baghdad. The organisation has over the past few years created a strong network representing the interests of victims and families spanning the entirety of Iraq.
Follow the team's work @Speicheriraq