This dissertation recounts the commemoration of Charles Darwin in Britain from his death in 1882 to his birth centenary in 1909. As a broadly chronological and episodic history, individual memorials are considered in themselves, in relation to others, and in their national and local contexts. In this way, they are shown to have been informed by contemporary scientific and wider cultural developments, previous memorialisations, and – consonant with a more recent historiographical turn to ‘place’ – local imperatives alongside those arising further afield. Consequently, memorialisers and observers are shown to have acted not merely as unreflective publicists or passive consumers, but as interpreters of Darwin’s memory who brought their own concerns to his commemoration. Darwin’s funeral, at Westminster Abbey, was widely accepted as a national endorsement of his social respectability, and, by extension, that of a burgeoning scientific profession which organised it. Further to this first posthumous elevation, and appropriation, of Darwin, subsequent presentations were informed by contemporary literary developments, and particularly the sudden decline in the posthumous reputation of Thomas Carlyle, which reflected changing attitudes to long-established ‘heroic’ tradition. As such, the production, reception and mobilisation of Darwinian biography (primarily his Life and Letters and its subsequent editions and sequels) recognised these recent literary concerns and further contributed to Darwin’s elevation as a personal and scientific exemplar. The ways in which Darwin’s reputation was elaborated and used are recovered at a range of sites of Darwinian significance, most notably Edinburgh, Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Oxford and London. Encompassing metropolitan, provincial, institutional and civic commemoration, accompanying periodical reportage, commentary and memorialisation is also considered. Common to the majority of these productions, Darwin’s theory of natural selection was criticised, contradicted or ignored. Nevertheless, the esteem in which the celebrated naturalist was held was to grow in inverse proportion to the reputation of his famous theory. Against this background, an extended memorial season peaked in the summer of 1909 at the Darwin Celebration at the University of Cambridge. That grandiose occasion echoed and developed themes which were well recorded in preceding commemorations, both ceremonially and in the periodical press. Consequently, man and work were brought into closer relation with a widely-expressed interest in the origins of his apparently exceptional abilities and character. The great naturalist was celebrated as a hereditary, as well as a moral and intellectual, exemplar. This development was supported by the new findings of Mendelian biology and Darwin’s memorial association with advancing eugenic activism. For the first time attending to his early ‘afterlife’ in Britain, this account traces the interaction of Darwin’s commemoration not only with the emerging biological sciences, but also with wider preoccupations concerning secularisation, democratisation and reform across the decades either side of the turn of the twentieth century. Ultimately, Darwin’s early memorialisation can be apprehended as a scientific activity in itself, contributing to professional, disciplinary and theoretical developments in the biological sciences.

This thesis explores chronologically the art, commemoration and memorialisation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps at Auschwitz, from their establishment in 1940 to the present day. Following a review of the literature in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 examines the production of works of art by the inmates of the camp. That art should have been produced at all in Auschwitz may conflict with our expectations, given the conditions of life within the camp. Nevertheless, art was as necessary in Auschwitz as it is elsewhere. The present account of the making of art under such difficult circumstances attempts to make a significant addition to the established narratives of Auschwitz. The post-war development of Auschwitz as a site-specific museum, established to commemorate the victims of the camp almost as soon as the site was liberated in 1945, permits analysis of techniques utilized by the museum authorities to display artefacts in order to narrate the story of Auschwitz. This is the subject of Chapter 3. For a period, the site was used by successive Polish political administrations to construct and bind Polish national identity to Russian political demands. The act of memorialisation has been shaped by political requirements almost throughout Auschwitz’s post-war history. The determinant of recognition for memorial purposes was national identity. The use of overtly religious iconography, whether Christian or Jewish, was severely limited. Communist governments defined all victims as political, and specifically as victims of the struggle against Nazism. These political considerations affected the inconclusive 1957 memorial competition. This competition, and its political contexts, is described in Chapters 4 and 5. In 1968 the Polish government began an anti-Semitic campaign that provoked international condemnation. Chapter 6 surveys these events, and describes one significant outcome, the establishment at the site of what was known locally as the Jewish pavilion. Finally, in Chapter 7, I draw together the three overriding concepts of art, commemoration and memorialisation – the predominant themes of this discussion – in order to show how the conception of Auschwitz has moved beyond the physical boundaries of the historical site. The question of what the site itself means, or should mean, remains a matter of continuing debate. The narrative of memorialisation at Auschwitz becomes increasingly marked by single events such as the establishment of the Jewish Pavilion, each embodying the turn towards the recognition that what should be remembered lies beyond nationality, and is separate from the contingent politics of the post-war settlement. Behind this, however, lies a further and more important narrative: that at every point in its history Auschwitz was intrinsically and inescapably a Jewish experience. This subsumes the particularities of the slow realization that this is what the site should celebrate. This thesis is committed to embodying this overarching narrative, and aspects of it can be found throughout, in every chapter.

In Rwanda, graves containing the bodies of those killed during conflict and the 1994 genocide hold great significance both for the Rwandan state and for individuals caught up in the violent conflicts that have troubled the country over the last century. The ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has initiated a national exhumation program, unearthing thousands of genocide victims. The exhumations are undertaken by genocide survivors and local community members who unearth the bodies, disarticulate the corpses, wash and layout the bones for re-internment together. The destruction of graves and/or the reconstruction of memorials takes place alongside this process, a transformation into collective spaces of genocide ‘remembrance’. My thesis interrogates these processes and considers a conundrum: in as much as these are revealing acts, making visible the horrors of a violent death, that also conceal and complicate. Understanding the multiple intentions behind this work requires a delicate unpacking of the everyday presence of uncertainty within Rwanda post-genocide and a careful consideration of the properties of materials through which troubling memories are made visible. These are inherently risky projects and thinking through the transformations that are enacted upon the recovered items invites fresh review of the potential for material remains of the dead to evoke destabilizing pasts or assist in the imagining of the future at a salient moment for Rwanda.

Guilt, forgiveness, and reconciliation are fundamental themes in human musical life, and this thesis investigates how people articulate these experiences through musical performance in contemporary genres. I argue that by participating in performances, individuals enact social narratives that create and reinforce wider ideals of music’s roles in society. I assess the interpenetrations of music and guilt, forgiveness, and reconciliation through a number of case studies spanning different genres preceded by a brief introduction to my methodology. My analysis of Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw illustrates the themes (guilt, confession and memorialisation) and approach I adopt in the three main case studies. My examination of William Fitzsimmons’s indie folk album The Sparrow and the Crow, investigates how ideals of authenticity, self-revelation, and persona structure our understanding of the relationship between performer and audience in confessional indie music. Analyses of two contemporary choral settings of Psalm 51 by Arvo Pärt and James MacMillan examine the confessional relationship between human beings and God. I suggest that by transubstantiating the sacramental traditions of confession in pieces designed for the concert hall, these composers navigate the boundary between the aesthetic and the sacramental. Lastly, I contrast two pieces connected to reconciliation efforts in Australia and South Africa: I argue that the unified narrative of healing in Kerry Fletcher’s “Sorry Song” becomes a performative communal apology, whilst the fragmented, multi-vocal narrative of Philip Miller’s REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony illustrates how reconciliation may be achieved through constructing a collective history that acknowledges the multiplicity of testimony in post-apartheid society. I conclude that these pieces provide a means for people to enact narratives of guilt, forgiveness, and reconciliation and point towards new areas of study on the multivalent relationship between contemporary music and memory.

This research examines the process of memorialisation around the Indian Residential School System in Canada to draw connections between the fields of transitional justice and professional urban planning. For over a century, government and churches in Canada operated a system of residential schools that removed Indigenous children from their families and communities. Today, many Indigenous communities struggle with the intergenerational impacts of this system, and as a society we are attempting to heal the damaged relationships that have resulted. This research presents a comparative case study of two processes of memorialisation surrounding the residential school system. Through site observations, interviews, and analyses of documents, this research examines the transformation and memorialisation of the Mohawk Institute, a former residential school, into the Woodland Cultural Centre, a First Nations-run centre located in Brantford, Ontario. I compare this example with the national Commemoration Fund, set out in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (2006), which settled lawsuits filed by residential school survivors against the federal government of Canada and several church organisations. This research underlines some tensions inherent in memorialising the human rights abuses experienced in the residential schools. A significant difficulty is establishing balance between leaving ownership of stories of the residential school experiences with survivors, while acknowledging the responsibilities that the whole of society must carry if reconciliation is to be achieved. I conclude that the process established through the Commemoration Fund does not adequately reflect this balance, leaving a heavy burden on survivors and their communities without providing adequate support. I further argue that the timelines established through this fund do not allow for the longer-term evolution that may characterize effective memorialisation projects. These themes link to theories around collaborative planning, and considerations of social justice and procedural fairness. In recent decades, collaborative planning has been seen as a way to make planning practices more inclusive. However, in the context of planning with Indigenous Peoples, collaborative processes may not be a sufficient response to rights claims. This has important implications for professional planners, as we work towards decolonization, reconciliation, and establishing just-relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in Canada. / Thesis (Master, Urban & Regional Planning) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-08 13:19:55.027

The Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) has generally not been talked about in France despite having around 2 million Algerians living in France. The memory of the war has been a contested issue in France between the French state's official memory and the Algerian memory. As the topic has been mainly discussed by historians and state officials, this study looks at how the young Algerians living in France obtain and deal with the memory of the Algerian War, by exploring the reinforcement of memories from the past to the present. Issues of remembering, commemorating, and reconciling are examined among the young Algerians in France who did not experience the war directly but feel strongly connected to it in the present day. ​​Placed at the intersection of Peace and Conflict Studies and Memory Studies fields, this qualitative study is based on six interviews and employs thematic analysis of the interview material. The analysis reveals the intergenerational shaping of collective memories and highlights the importance of considering both state-level policies and individual perceptions for achieving reconciliation. The study shows that research on collective memory can contribute to a deeper understanding of the ongoing struggles for recognition and acknowledgement.

Bearing witness to tragedy, the aftermath of genocide often resides quite evidently within the landscape. A potent container of memories and representation, the landscape provides both a symbolic role in which to honour the victims and give survivors a place to mourn and remember, but is also often infused with the tensions of post-genocide life. The memoryscapes of the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides illustrate these contested concerns explicitly. The case study sites investigated in this study - the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre in Cambodia, and the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda - each express today (consciously or unconsciously) design strategies that engage the Euro-Western visitor. Termed Euro-Western ‘cues to connect’, encountered and existential phenomenological data is analysed in relation to design interpretation and the affective cognition of meaning. Finally, considered in relation to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, post genocide memorialisation is analysed in its ability to connect through time and culture - through its ability to transpose interpretations and evolve as the needs of society change.

Cette thèse examine le processus de construction, de projection et de performance d’un aspect de l’identité nationale australienne – l’Anzac et son rôle central dans le récit national – par le prisme de la mémorialisation de guerre à Villers-Bretonneux. Elle se penche sur les liens tangibles entre cette commune et l’Australie – en incluant, parmi d’autres dispositifs commémoratifs, l’Ecole Victoria, le mémorial national australien, le musée franco-australien, l’association franco-australienne et la commémoration de l’Anzac Day – et ce que ces liens révèlent à propos de la nature des pratiques commémoratives australiennes. Cette thèse met en lumière que la commune de Villers-Bretonneux a été utilisée comme une scène sur laquelle des versions changeantes du récit national australien ont été assemblées et mises en scène. A Villers, la réécriture de ce récit a été constante, en organisant le passé pour se définir, individuellement et collectivement, dans le présent. Par ailleurs, ce processus actif d’élaboration d’identité nationale australienne par le biais de la mémorialisation de guerre relègue souvent les soldats morts commémorés au second plan pour servir les intérêts présents de ceux qui les commémorent. Villers-Bretonneux est une commune inconnue de la grande majorité des Français. Pourtant, c’est au travers des commémorations de guerre dans cette commune d’un peu plus de 4,000 habitants que l’Australie a construit et nourri son interprétation de l’hommage des Français aux soldats australiens de la Première Guerre mondiale. Cette thèse met en lumière cet aspect essentiel qu’est l’altérité dans la validation d’images nationales par l’étude de l’importance que l’Australie a accordée à la validation française perçue de son récit national. / This thesis examines the process of assembly, projecting and performing an aspect of Australian national identity – Anzac and its central role in the national narrative – through the prism of war memorialisation at Villers-Bretonneux. It scrutinises the tangible ties between this town and Australia – including, amongst other forms of commemoration and commemorative devices, Victoria School, the Australian National Memorial, the French-Australian Museum, the French-Australian Association, and the commemoration of Anzac Day – and what these links reveal about the nature of Australian commemorative practices. The thesis argues that this village has been utilised as a stage upon which to engineer and perform changing representations of Australia’s national narrative. At Villers-Bretonneux there has been a constant rewriting of this narrative, managing the past to define oneself – collectively and individually – in the present. This active process of the development of the Australian national narrative through war memorialisation often relegates the commemorated dead soldiers to the background and serves, in their place, the present interests of those who commemorate. Villers-Bretonneux is a town unknown to the vast majority of French people and one to which even fewer ever travel. Yet, it is upon Australian war commemorations in this town of a little over 4,000 inhabitants that Australia has constructed its reportage of the French homage to Australian soldiers of the First World War and Australia. The thesis exposes this essential element of otherness in validating national images through an examination of the insistence on the perceived validation offered by the French.

Since unification the memorial landscape of Berlin and its surrounding territories has shifted and expanded exponentially. The majority of this change has occurred within the past ten years, as commemoration of the Holocaust and educational programmes on the National Socialist period have become not only prevalent, but a necessary and expected contribution to the shaping of German identity and memorial culture. In the past decade memorial museums and sites of remembrance, such as the House of the Wannsee Conference, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the former Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück concentration camps, have contributed to and been impacted by the formation of a globalised memory of the Holocaust. As major and internationally renowned institutions, these sites offer unique insight into the nature of current memorial culture and recent approaches to memorialising and commemorating the past. Through an analysis of their exhibition spaces (online, permanent, temporary) and educational programmes (guided tours, seminars, and workshops), this dissertation will attempt to identify how these sites contribute to the formation of a globalised memory. Though each of these four sites possesses a different connection to the history of the Holocaust, and their own alternative approach to presenting and commemorating this history; this variation will provide insight into the divergent landscape of memorialisation within Germany, while also highlighting the common approaches, and practical issues that are of concern to these institutions. Overall the main aim of this thesis will be to demonstrate how memorialisation of the Holocaust, at sites within Berlin and Brandenburg, is no longer defined and shaped solely by the nation state, but rather is influenced by and contributes to international trends of remembrance and a globalised memory of the Holocaust.

This research report focuses on the issues for participation in public memory projects, in the light of counter-monument critiques of audiences being ‘rendered passive’. Interviews with people who went on the 2005 March of the Living tour to Holocaust sites in Poland and then to Israel have been analysed in terms of themes and processes of meaningmaking. The written text of some of the material provided to them is also analysed. Meanings in the interviews notably occupied two discursive spaces that seem at odds with each other. The first was the discourse around what is a good way to memorialise – particularly when the memory is one of such enormity as the Holocaust. The second is the discourse around tolerance education – how do we ‘learn lessons’ from the Holocaust? The issues for heritage interpretation and tolerance education are explored.