Authors

Klavdia Tatar¹;  ¹ University of Ottawa, Canada

Discussion

The proposed paper seeks to analyze the role of transnational communities (diasporas) in the process of collecting, securing and converting episodes of national trauma into the global visual product of remembering and cooptation. Informed by memory studies and crossing with the field  diaspora research, I am looking at international communities' initiatives to recreate the collective narrative of trauma and change the status in the existing model of mnemonical positionality (Mälksoo 2021). Over the 20th and 21st centuries the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora has turned into a truly remarkable mnemonic actor, known for championing very specific “symbolic” causes that aim at generating certain image of the community for the general audience. Among them are Holodomor-genocide recognition and information campaigns, and creating of multiple cinematic products, which can reach out to Canadian and international audience. Diaspora participation in Canadian Museum for Human rights exhibition has become another symbolic, yet controversial milestone for the diaspora group. Both campaigns are interconnected and become known for its ambivalent effect on the diaspora actors and the process of memory politicization across Canada. With the engagement of financial, social, and cultural capitals, diasporas seek to maintain a sense of belonging and aim to change the current mnemonical status and visualize  the past present collective trauma.

The research aims at unpacking diaspora group’s capability of being an important mnemonic player amongst other competing stakeholders. Thus, the above empirical examples aim at showing how memory politics within diaspora communities is being instrumentalized.

Core concepts: Canadian Ukrainian diaspora, mnemonical preservation and promotion, securitization, crisis, collective trauma narratives, ontological threat.