A panel discussion was held by the Centre for Policy Alternatives on 18 January the politics of memorialisation, stemming from the recent incident that took place in Jaffna with regards to the destruction of the Mullivaikkal Memorial inside the Jaffna University premises, which was erected in memory of the students and civilians who lost their lives in the war.
The discussion shed light on memorialisation as a whole and its role in society, providing that it is an important tool in addressing conflict situations, where years of repression, social inequality, and injustice have created polarised communities.
Memory initiatives can be a great healer and an enabler of reconciliation, paving ways and opportunities for dialogue, understanding, apologising, acknowledging, and addressing past violence between divided societies.
‘All actors must come together’
To further this conversation on the need for memorialisation in a post-conflict society, we reached out to one of the panelists featured at the event, artist and activist Prof. Chandraguptha Thenuwara, who is President of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka President, and a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Art History Department of the University of the Visual & Performing Arts’ Faculty of Visual Art.
Reading from the glossary for the International Centre for Transitional Justice, Prof. Thenuwara quoted: “Memorialisation is the process of creating public monuments”, and therefore, while memory is the process, its result is the memorial.
It is an opportunity or an event for those who were affected by violence to remember the ones they lost, and it can happen at the level of individuals and communities. While there are many forms of memory and remembering, sometimes orally or even in writing, the visual medium serves a greater purpose in its physical manifestation of what constitutes a memory.
The visual representation, the monument or structure, can provide an opportunity for communities to reflect upon what led to this eventuality; and if it was a violent act, then its root causes, how it was experienced, and what impact it had on communities. Prof. Thenuwara said that it allows for us to reflect upon the politics of the violence; in that way we can participate not just by critiquing, but also conceptualising what type of mobilisation is needed to avoid similar experiences in the future.
Therefore, considering the immense importance borne by these structures, when the State or any dominant actor using force disrupts and undermines these purposes in any form, what happens is these two processes of healing and political conversation experience a setback, which is why this type of action must be condemned.
Policing and manipulating the acts of memorialisation as a way of controlling people’s expressions exposes the State’s complicity in one-sided memory, when in fact the putting up of and protection of such monuments should be done with State endorsement.
“All actors must come together to decide what kind of monument or memorialisation is necessary.”
No effective route to study our history
The Professor also referred to the nature of our education within the island, addressing the fact that the formal state education system does not include in its curriculum its post-independent history. He shared that not only are we unable to adapt our curricula to represent our recent history, but we do not even take an effective route in studying the past histories that are already included in the syllabus.
He referred to the Battle of Vijithapura between Dutugemunu and Elara, and how the story ends with the victory of Dutugemunu; the politics of what happened afterwards, and what he as the victor did (he created a memorial in memory of his fallen adversary), are not included in textbooks. “We do not teach our students our history of memorialisation, of respect, and the importance our history has placed upon memory,” he said. “We do not allow our students to debate the action of both sides, nor do we give them the opportunity to think for themselves, to ponder the motivations, and the prospect in turn to decide for themselves the futility of conflict and violence.”
Prof. Thenuwara also shared that, in his experience, students are also far removed from the love of learning and therefore less empathetic to human causes. Sharing with us an instance where he carried out a Human Rights Exhibition in 2018, a student who believed that human rights are a Western ideal had expressed that they (the students) were being used for the professor’s political agenda. The student was in fact a Major in Gallery Studies, and had joined to gain experience for his course.
The Professor said that, in his opinion, this type of reaction from students began in 2001, back when the Z-score was adjusted and many state university students held the belief that higher education was their right; this entitlement made it so that they were neither grateful nor empathetic to the needs of others. He said that because of this Z-score issue, many students pursue subjects they have no passion or interest in, simply to gain a greater score, resulting in indifferent students attending courses purely to pass exams and obtain a degree.
“I feel lonely in my battle sometimes… and that is why more artists and actions must come up,” said the Professor, adding: “There were thousands who came up to beautify the walls (back in early 2020 when the President encouraged the street art trend that was growing and there were thousands who participated), but who will come up to protect the rights of the people?”
The power of art and its necessity 
With regard to the erasure of monuments, he also referred to historical and cultural structures like colonial architecture, sharing that while we may not have enjoyed being colonised and it was a dark time in our history, that does not change the fact that it is in fact a part of our history, and we must protect the monuments which remind us of that.
Artists have the power to represent visually that which keeps memory alive, said Prof. Thenuwara, sharing that he has engaged in several works over the years where he has attempted to memorialise the human experience.
In 1997, he launched his ongoing series of camouflage works, entitled “Barrelism” at the Heritage Gallery, Colombo. Conceived and executed across several mediums, Barrelism’s projects continued until 2015, where he paints barrels in camouflage as a representation of Sri Lanka’s times in conflict, for which the camouflage barrel has become a symbol.
In 2010, he curated “Visual Responses during the War” sponsored by the Centre for Policy Alternatives and exhibited at the Lionel Wendt Gallery, and between 2015-2018, he continued to curate exhibitions annually with a focus on the themes of human rights, displacement, conflict, and adversity.
For nearly 23 years, Thenuwara has done annual exhibitions on “commemorating on commemorative things”.
Taking down memorials is the erasure of memories. Whether we like it or not – whether it is beautiful or ugly – it is their memory, it is the signature of their experience; and in doing so, we are engaging in propagating living in this fake, beautified paradise that looks like nothing happened around us.
We are a country that suffered a war, political coups, and ethnic disharmony, and it should be represented in the physical manifestation of our memories. We must allow for the existence of constructed sites like museums related to conflict, found sites like graves, locations of mass killings; even the destruction of memorials can become a memorial – a place where once there was an attempt to memorialise and it was stricken down, was Thenuwara’s sentiment. And there are other activities we can do as well, he said, like exhibitions, public apologies, parades, and vigils, to remember.
However, to maintain our right to memorialise, we must also step up as a community and demand it. “Because governments, when they change, their policy changes, and they forget everything and they can erase anything. So the community must step up to hold them accountable.”
In the name of beautification
As a closing remark, Prof. Thenuwara added that beautification has become a new challenge towards the preservation of cultural monuments and memorials.
Prof. Thenuwara was part of the Memorial of Neelan, which took place annually from 1999-2003, where they painted the road, but in 2013, according to him, it was stopped for the sake of the beautification of Colombo.
The lack of interest by communities, and state actors taking advantage of this inaction, is now creating a forced narrative. “People are also responsible for this; they are not protecting any of our history. Forget about conflict, they are ready to demolish old colonial houses, even change the paving of streets for the sake of so-called development,” he said, adding: “For the sake of artificial beautification, they are happy to sacrifice anything – even their freedom.”
Speaking about the state of Colombo right now, he pointed out that all Colonial history has been erased from the city. Our surroundings are no longer representative of our experience, he said, and “that is why I twist the word atmosphere, to ‘at-most-fear’”. He shared that right now, the Government has license to erase anything, and to protect our rights, we must become a conscious society – and we will still face an endless battle to cling to our memories.
