Counter memorials and counter monuments in Australia’s commemorative landscape: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Over the course of the last four decades there has been a growing interest in the development and impact of counter memorials and counter monuments. While counter memorial and monument practices have been explored in Europe and the United States, relatively little research has been conducted in the Australian context. This systematic literature review examines the current state of scholarship by exploring what form counter monuments and memorials have taken and what events they have focussed on. A total of 134 studies met the selection criteria and were included in the final review. The major factors identified that have impacted on the development of the counter memorial and monument genre in Australia are international and domestic influences, historical, political and social-cultural events in Australia, the socio-political agenda of various individuals or organisations, and the aesthetics of the counter memorials and monuments themselves. The review found that Australia has a diverse and active counter memorial and monument genre, with commemorative practices honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, women, victims of human made and natural disasters, the experiences of asylum seekers, and the histories and experiences of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities.

Memorials to murdered women: A study of the dynamics of claiming, marking and making place in publics of commemoration

“…Many grassroots memorials highlight issues of injustice in spaces of mobility and habitation in the ‘everydayness of people’s lives’ (Ashton and Hamilton, 2008: 4). Research on the growth of Australia’s vernacular memorial culture shows diversity in voices addressing Aboriginal massacres, deaths from racist policing, asylum seekers, crimes and violence against children, women, and LGBTQI+ peoples (Bulbeck, 1992; Ashton and Hamilton, 2008; Baguley et al, 2021). Grassroots memorials often emerge from events of traumatic violence – the context of our case study.…”

“…This is an interesting question in and of itself and, as feminist scholarship has suggested, raises the issue of women’s status as subjects within memorial research (see Rosenberg, 1998; Bold et al, 2002; Burk, 2003). In the context of Australian research, Baguley, Kirby and Anderson’s (2021: 104) systematic literature review of Australia’s commemorative culture notes that ‘there is a gap in the commemorative landscape with no memorial or monument existing in Australia that specifically addresses violence against women perpetrated by men’. Although official (gender-neutral) memorials to domestic violence victims are emerging, typically, memorials to murdered women and gendered violence exist almost entirely in the category of vernacular grassroots memorials.…”