Managing heritage in the wake of war and conflict in Cyprus

In the wake of a Greece-inspired coup against the Greek Cypriot President of Cyprus in 1974, the Turkish military occupied the northern third of the island and continues to do so. Ethnic communities are still separated: Greek Cypriots moved to the south and Turkish Cypriots to the north. This paper covers issues raised by the bi-communal conservation projects resulting from the European Union’s Partnership for the Future Programme being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme. The projects require co-operation between mutually distrustful, fearful and disdainful communities for the sake of common objectives – social and economic wellbeing. Cyprus has apparently opted for conflict management rather than resolution, with both sides focused on achieving prosperity. Heritage conservation has become a tool for peaceful co-existence and mutual pride. Initially the projects involved places of shared heritage rather than places reinforcing the separate cultural identities of the communities. Loss of cultural identity is a concern of both communities. Ongoing operational issues derive from the illegality of the Turkish government in the north and the repercussions of this for international aid. The paper will contribute to the conference theme by exploring the professional challenges related to these issues and their possible resolution.

Kurunuavanua: Fijian bodies and the economy of war

In Kurunavanua (the trembling of the earth) Bolatagici investigates representations of Pacific Island masculinity, Fiji and the economy of war. Her ongoing research is concerned with neo-colonial encounters between the US, Australia, Britain and Pacific Island nations. This exhibition is informed by research into the exploitation of the Pacific by comparing the participation of Fijian soldiers in the nuclear tests at Christmas Island in the 1950s to the current recruitment of Fijians to work for Private Security Military Companies in the Middle East.

Fractured lives : Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese and their families

Examines how the particular nature of captivity by the Japanese during World War II intensified and complicated the impact, legacy and memory of war for POWs and their families. It presents insights into the experience of the prisoners' wives and how battalion associations protect and promote the remembrance of war.

Representing Fijian bodies and the economy of war

This paper traces representations of the black body, which I have related to contemporary masculine identities in Fiji. I have linked historical representations to what I perceive as the ongoing commodification of the Fijian body and argue that opportunities that have arisen from conflict in the Middle East have had a significant impact on employment opportunities for Fijians. I have framed the discussion around a description and analysis of my own photographic and installation artworks produced between 2007 and 2009.

Export quality : representing Fijian bodies and the economy of war

Fijian bodies have become a valuable commodity in the economy of war. Remittances from workers overseas are Fiji’s largest income – exceeding that of tourism and sugar export. This essay examines historical and contemporary representations of the black male body that perpetuate the exploitation of Fijians by inscribing the Fijian male body as warrior, criminal and protector. Taking a multidisciplinary approach informed by sociology, cultural theory, Pacific studies, visual culture, feminist and post-colonial theory, my practice is the vehicle through which I address issues of neocolonial commodification of Fijian bodies. Through an analysis of my own staged photographs and vernacular images taken by Fijians working for private security military companies and British and US armies, I hope to challenge audiences to consider their own perceptions of Fijian agency and subjectivity. By theorising the politicisation of the black body and interrogating colonial representations of blackness, I argue that we can begin to create links between the historical and contemporary exploitation of Fijians and that at the essence of both is an underlying racial hierarchy and economic requirement for cheap and, arguably, expendable labour.

Heritage of war

The Heritage of War is an interdisciplinary study of the ways in which heritage is mobilized in remembering war, and in reconstructing landscapes, political systems and identities after conflict. It examines the deeply contested nature of war heritage in a series of places and contexts, highlighting the modes by which governments, communities, and individuals claim validity for their own experiences of war, and the meanings they attach to them.

From colonizing violence in South America to the United States’ Civil War, the Second World War on three continents, genocide in Rwanda and continuing divisions in Europe and the Middle East, these studies bring us closer to the very processes of heritage production. The Heritage of War uncovers the histories of heritage: it charts the constant social and political construction of heritage sites over time, by a series of different agents, and explores the continuous reworking of meaning into the present.

What are the forces of contingency, agency and political power that produce, define and sustain the heritage of war? How do particular versions of the past and particular identities gain legitimacy, while others are marginalised? In this book contributors explore the active work by which heritage is produced and reproduced in a series of case studies of memorialization, battlefield preservation, tourism development, private remembering and urban reconstruction. These are the acts of making sense of war; they are acts that continue long after violent conflict itself has ended.