Survivor Memorials ― Remembering Trauma and Loss in Contemporary Australia

This is a book about memorials—specifically about a new type of memorial that commemorates experiences of survivors. These new memorials acknowledge loss and trauma that people have lived through, rather than died because of. It is also a book about why people feel the need to remember such difficult experiences. As such, it combines a topic that has strong scholarly interest with human stories of pain and resilience from Australia’s recent history.

The first half of the book outlines the emergence of this new genre of commemoration in three stages from the 1980s through the mid-2000s. The book includes six case study chapters, each of which tell the story of the development of a different Australian memorial.

Alison Atkinson-Phillips is a social and cultural historian based at Newcastle University, UK. Alison joined the newly formed Oral History Unit and Collective at Newcastle University in January 2018. She is a former member of Bringing Them Home WA, an advocacy organization working to support survivors of the Stolen Generations, and former chair of the Uniting Church Social Justice Board (WA).