Embodied memory encounters of asylum-seeking children and young people

What is it about?

In the article Embodied Memory Encounters, we examine how memories and bodily experiences are intertwined in the lives of asylum-seeking children and youth who are still “on the move.” These young people had been forced to leave their homes and countries, and had not yet been granted a permission to settle in Finland. To capture these experiences, we used art-based methods that allow embodied memories to surface. Our empirical material comes from a puppet theatre workshop held in 2016 for children and youth living in a reception center. This workshop was organized in collaboration with the Reetu and Lola performance by Svenska Teatern in Helsinki. Typically, memories of displacement and migration are documented years, sometimes decades, after the actual journey. This time gap effects what is remembered and what is shared with others. In contrast, our study focused on children and youth while they were “on the move.” This perspective offered unique insights into the complex nature of belonging, revealing what it means to live in-between spaces and to maintain sociospatial ties that are simultaneously “here and there.” The concept of embodied memory encounters introduces a new way of understanding how embodied knowledge contributes to everyday meaning-making. It highlights the role of social and material encounters and the significance of embodiment in shaping memories and experiences.

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Photo by Green Liu on Unsplash

Photo by Green Liu on Unsplash