Metonymic objects, cultural practices and narrative repair: Sri Lankan responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami

Abstract

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami resulted in a tragic loss of life and immense suffering. This article explores the ways in which a group of people from Sri Lanka worked to address the disruption to their life narratives caused by the loss of loved ones. We go beyond a focus on 'talk' in narrative research in health psychology to explore the importance of material objects in sustaining continued bonds with the deceased. This article provides an alternative to the tendency in mainstream psychology to pathologise grief and highlights the importance of culturally patterned responses to disaster.

Culturally sensitive disaster nursing by Public health nurses in Japan

“…PHNs preserved linking, thinking of, and following culture to retain material and non‐material identity and for the purpose of grief care. They valued the community's world view regarding material culture such as houses (Cassim et al., 2015 ). They also considered the world view of the elderly aggregate regarding illness and emphasized relationships to enable contact with an appropriate health care system, rather than trying to modify their world view.…”

“…PHNs maximized utilized culture to build resilience in new communities, including in health promotion activities and disaster preparedness. Cultural practice brings resilience (Cassim et al., 2015 ). More attention to community enables information to be conveyed first‐hand, which is essential for disaster risk reduction in a collectivist community such as Japan (Jang et al, 2016).…”

“…PHNs preserved, followed or thought of culture to ensure a sense of continuity and identity. Material objects provide a sense of continuity between the past and the present that encourages a high context of culture in the community (Cassim et al., 2015 ). Shared experience such as storytelling helps the community to reconnect with their identity and allows new life going forward without losing a sense of history (Cassim et al., 2015 ).…”

“…Housing style, as a material culture, shapes world view and identity (Cassim et al., 2015 ). PHNs valued housing style tacitly to maintain the identity of the community.…”

Embodied narratives of disaster: the expression of bodily experience in Aceh, Indonesia

“…Hoffman ; Simpson & Corbridge ; Ullberg ). Studies of other post‐tsunami contexts, such as those in Sri Lanka, India, and Japan, reveal how public and personal acts and objects of memorialization become intertwined with people's efforts to remake their everyday lives (Cassim, Stolte & Hodgetts ; Hastrup ; Peterson ). While in Aceh people similarly remember the disaster through a range of expressions, such as songs, poems, prayers, a tsunami museum, a ship‐turned‐memorial in the middle of Banda Aceh, as well as personal objects and photographs, I here aim to demonstrate the importance of including embodied narratives as a crucial site of disaster memory and a social way of remaking the post‐disaster world.…”