This paper is a first attempt to advocate for the inclusion of memorialisation and mourning facilities within standard programmes of disaster recovery. Whether natural or man-made, the traumatic experiences of disasters call for spaces, places and objects of memory. Memorial ceremonies, monuments, gardens and museums are all tangible and intangible forms of remembering disasters and their victims. Considering the regular delays in the provision of mourning facilities, this paper asks a few fundamental questions: How are the mourning families and friends of the victims dealing with their loss and trauma during the recovery period? What impact can the absence of mourning facilities have on social recovery? Drawing from ethnographic observations in Japan and Indonesia, this paper argues that mourning facilities can form a systematic basis for the social recovery of disaster communities.
20 Mar 2015