The Institute for Peace and Understanding is implementing the project “Trauma-Sensitive and Inclusive Memorialization in Ukraine,” aimed at researching global, national, and local memorialization practices.
As part of the project, a platform will be created to serve as a space for expert groups to conduct analyses and run workshops to develop recommendations and examples of memorialization.
The war in Ukraine has lasted ten years, and although hostilities continue, it is already necessary to understand how we will remember these terrible events. It is important that we determine which historical moments and lessons should become an integral part of our memory so that in the future they form a basis for the country’s stabilization and cohesion.
The importance of memorialization lies not only in recording crimes and tragedies, but in reassessing them and preserving them in memory.
To ensure we have learned the lessons of this war, we need to record the events and the heavy losses in our collective memory.
It is important for society to speak openly about wartime losses. This allows those affected not to feel abandoned and to find support. Although such conversations remind us of the brutality of war, they do not consign us to perpetual mourning; on the contrary, they make us stronger, forming a united society ready to stand its ground and honor the memory of the fallen with dignity.
May our memory serve as a guarantee against such tragedies in the future.
Memorialization is a way to preserve history and significant events for future generations. It is the process of creating a monument, commemorative plaque, museum, or other object that marks and honors a particular event or idea so as to keep it in people’s memory.
The aim of our project is to create a platform where expert groups will work together to study practices and needs. We propose researching global memorialization practices, adapting them, and implementing them in the Ukrainian context.
Our task is also to collect and analyze the best existing memorialization practices in order to create recommendations for trauma-sensitive memorialization methods that can be applied in our context. This will form the basis for developing a national policy that takes into account the trauma experienced by our society.
The project will implement the following steps:
Project implementation period: March–August 2024.
This project is implemented with the support of the Partnership for a Strong Ukraine Fund, which is financed by the governments of the United Kingdom, Estonia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States, Finland, Switzerland and Sweden.