Wounded Detachments: Cronulla, Social Memory and the Injuries of Racism

ABSTRACT

More than a decade since the Cronulla Riots, it could be argued that we are none the wiser about what they meant. Frequently evoked in public discourse, ‘Cronulla’ has become a benchmark for the worst of Australian society (whether that is seen as racism or multiculturalism). This paper reflects upon the representation of the Riots to explore three key ideas. First, we need to think about Cronulla through an exploration of the situated processes of social memory. There is no single ‘meaning’ of the Riots. In fact, the symbolic place of ‘Cronulla’ in public discourse is a contested space in which competing interests, processes and perspectives are at stake. Second, social memory is a complex and dispersed architecture of remembering and forgetting, but analysis typically focuses on the institutional and collective dimensions of social memory at the expense of other domains. Third, and drawing on some of the theoretical literature, we explore a different kind of memory that is forgotten in political and media representations of Cronulla – the embodied memory resulting from the injuries of racism experienced by those of Middle Eastern background. We see Cronulla entailing a violent and existential threat which detaches them from full belonging in Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Social memory
• racism
• race riots
• multiculturalism
• embodied memory
• islamophobia
• injury
• intercultural relations
• remembering
• forgetting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Greg Noble is Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Greg has conducted research in multiculturalism for 30 years, with particular interests in: Lebanese communities; racism; youth, ethnicity and gender; Bourdieusian analysis; cultural pedagogies and education. His books include Cultural Pedagogies and Human Conduct (2015, Routledge), Disposed to Learn (with Megan Watkins 2013, Bloomsbury), Bin Laden in the Suburbs (with Scott Poynting, Paul Tabar and Jock Collins 2004, Sydney Institute of Criminology) and, of course, Lines in the Sand: The Cronulla Riots, Multiculturalism and National Belonging (2009, Sydney Institute of Criminology).

Paul Tabar is Professor in Sociology and Anthropology, and Director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University, and Adjunct Researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Paul has been researching migration in Australia for 25 years. His publications include Arab Communities in Australia (2013, CAUS), On Being Lebanese in Australia (with Greg Noble and Scott Poynting 2010 LAU Press) and Bin Laden in the Suburbs (with Greg Noble, Scott Poynting and Jock Collins 2004, Sydney Institute of Criminology). He is currently working with Greg Noble on the idea of the migrant habitus and is a member of the editorial board on the Arab Journal of Sociology, Idafaat.

Notes

1. ‘Rethinking Multiculturalism/Reassessing Multicultural Education’ was an Australian Research Council Linkage project led by Megan Watkins, Greg Noble and Kevin Dunn, conducted jointly by the Institute for Culture and Society (Western Sydney University), the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities and the NSW Institute of Teachers. The project explored understandings of multiculturalism through a state-wide survey of teachers, focus groups with teachers, parents and students and action research projects in 14 schools (see http://www.multiculturaleducation.edu.au/).

2. These interviews were part of a project exploring the settlement practices of Lebanese Australians, and especially the phenomenological dimensions of learning how to inhabit place (Noble and Tabar 2014).