Lives in the Aftermath of Genocide: Reimagining and Reimaging 'Ethnically Cleansed' Villages as 'Cyber Villages'

• In Event: Caring across Borders: Materiality and Belonging in Transnational Families I

Abstract

The 1992-95 Bosnian war created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two. Often, families were forced at gun-point to leave their homes and all their belongings behind. When they could, they took with them family albums, documents, manual coffee grinders, house keys and other small objects of sentimental value that could be hidden in the handbags or pockets. In many instances, their homes were not only looted and appropriated by others but also completely burned down. The objects the refugees managed to take and retain with them before fleeing became precious possessions and the only material reminders of the homes and lives they once had. Using the internet and social media, many of the refugee groups from Bosnia-now scattered across Europe, the USA and Australia-have been exchanging old photographs, documents, images of the personal objects and stories about their 'former' local places. In the process, they have able to reconstruct their local identities and memories by creating vibrant 'cyber villages' as an alternative to the places lost. Based on conventional and digital ethnography, this paper discusses the ways Bosnian refugees and migrants utilise material objects, stories, digital technologies and new media in order to recreate, synchronise and sustain their identities and memories in the aftermath of 'ethnic cleansing' and genocide and in the contexts of their new emplacements and home-making practices in diaspora.

Author

• Hariz Halilovich, RMIT UNIVERSITY