A Sense of Viidu: The (Re)Creation of Home by the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Australia

ISBN-13: 9789811513718 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 168 str.

Niro Kandasamy; Nirukshi Perera; Charishma Ratnam

Spis treści

1. Introduction.- 2. Movements of Minorities: AusLankan Struggles for Justice.- 3. Lionheart.- 4. Home, Continuities and Resistance: Memory Activism in the Aftermath of Sri Lanka’s Civil War.- 5. My Life – A Fragile Raft.- 6. Tamil Women in the Home away from Home: The Impact of War Trauma on Psychological Wellbeing.- 7. The Struggle Over Memory: The Relational Dimensions of Traumatic Memory in the Lives of Tamil Asylum-Seeking Adolescents.- 8. Naren.- 9. (Re)creating Home: The Lived and Gendered Experiences of Tamil Women in Sydney, Australia.- 10. Tamil Weekends: Intergenerational Perspectives on Belonging.- 11. Bittersweet.- 12. Conclusion - (Re)creating Home: Remembering the Past, Looking to the Future.

O autorze

Niro Kandasamy completed her doctorate at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her dissertation examines the role of memory in the life stories of young Sri Lankan Tamil people resettled in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. She also undertakes research on the experiences of women with a disability in post-armed conflict Sri Lanka. She was a student visiting fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford in 2018. She has published work in Ethnic and Racial Studies (2018), Immigrants and Minorities (2018), Australian Social Work (2017) and Medicine, Conflict and Survival (2017). Niro is currently a Senior Research Officer at the Brotherhood of St Laurence and teaches in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. 

Nirukshi Perera received her doctorate in Linguistics from Monash University in 2017. Her thesis on language practices in a Tamil Hindu temple in Australia received the 2018 Australian Linguistics Society/Applied Linguistics Association Michael Clyne prize for the best thesis on immigrant bilingualism and language contact. She is interested in how Sri Lankan languages work in societies – from language use by migrants in the diaspora to language policy and linguistic-related justice in post-war Sri Lanka. Her work has been published in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development and Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. Niru is currently a Research Fellow in Linguistic Analysis at Curtin University. 

Charishma Ratnam is a doctoral researcher in Human Geography at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests are in cultural geography, home-making and geographies of memory and identity. She focuses on how memory and identity intersect with home-making practices for migrants. Her doctoral research investigates these intersections among Sri Lankan refugees and asylum seekers settling in homes in Sydney. Charishma employs visual and mobile methods including videography, photography and walking methods in the home with her participants to better understand their everyday routines, encounters and home-making practices as they settle in host countries. She has published her research in Geography Compass (2018), Emotion Space and Society (2019), and Visual Ethnography (2019). 

Blurb

"A poignant and relevant book for our times that provides a deep understanding of loss, displacement, migration, belonging, and home. A Sense of Viidu weaves together the history and stories of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Australia and reveals the complex, emotional, and multi-dimensional experiences of the many thousands who have sought and continue to seek peace and a safe home."

—Padmini Sebastian OAM, University of Melbourne, Australia

"A sense of viidu gives readers a profound and absorbing insight into the complexities of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee experience in Australia. Empirically rich and deeply haunting, it accounts for homes lost and remade by subjects in exile and their unwavering spirit in the post-conflict era."

—Dr Selvaraj Velayutham, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

"A diverse and insightful collection of texts which show how experiences of loss in and of the homeland are intertwined with psychological, cultural, social, and material processes of homemaking in Australia. Australia’s own violent history and migration policies make up a backdrop to the efforts of first and second generation Tamil migrants to shape their lives in a world of both possibilities and pain."

—Prof Camilla Orjuela, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

​This book is the first compilation of the experiences of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Australia. It explores the theme of home—from what is left behind, what is brought and what is (re)created in new spaces—and all the complex processes that ensue as a result of leaving a land defined by conflict. Although the war officially came to an end in 2009, conflict continues in diverse forms, which is presented from the perspectives of those who have left Sri Lanka. The research chapters present a multidisciplinary approach to Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora studies and are complemented by creative contributions from prominent Sri Lankan artists in Australia.