title: Beyond the Drina: Serbian Heritage and Memories of Historical Injustice
Creators: name: Damjanovic, Rebecca A
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Ethno-national symbolism
subject: cultural heritage practices
subject: Serbian community

description: The Serbian migrant community in Australia is large and well-established, if little known internationally. Most community members have been born in Australia, but many Serbs have arrived as both migrants and refugees from the end of the Second World War through to the twenty-first century. Many in the Serb community continue to be significantly affected by the legacies of conflict that are often used to characterise Serbian history, although only those who were born in the former Yugoslavia are included in my discussion in this thesis. These legacies of violence can disproportionately frame cultural memories of Serbian identity across the community; an identity whose sense of difference was sharpened by the break-up of the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Crucially for my findings in this thesis, these migrants’ cultural memories are strongly associated with ethno-nationalist symbols and key heritage sites in Serbia. Ethno-national symbolism is a key part of cultural heritage practices in Australia’s Serbian community. These symbols and mythologies provide a sense of continuity and connection with migrants’ former homes, but also emerge as signifiers of historical victimhood and injustice within Serbs’ heritage practices. As I demonstrate in the thesis, the heritage practices are rich and varied. Many Serb migrants must navigate the legacies of multiple conflicts and long-standing tensions within migrants’ former homes. An awareness of historical violence can continue to inscribe suffering long after Serbs arrived in Australia. My interviews with Serbs also quickly revealed how historical differences divide the community, particularly regarding communism and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This realisation that history remained central to the contemporary community prompted sustained exploration of the Serbian heritage sites and practices that energised the community. Serbian migrants in Australia frequently draw on diverse narratives and mythologies of victimhood and resilience to articulate a sense of community. Prompted by the reflections of the Serbian migrants I interviewed, I travelled to the Balkans to understand how heritage sites associated with the cultural memories of participants enable and articulate historical narratives. These heritage practices stem from the nation’s complex history of occupation and resistance, which has lasted for more than half a millennium. As I demonstrate, heritage sites that resonated particularly with participants included those associated with the medieval Battle of Kosovo, the emergence of nineteenth century national identity and liberation, as well as the Second World War. Sites associated with the more recent conflicts throughout the 1990s were particularly prominent and important for the Australian community. Together, these sites enable a diverse array of narratives that weave together mythologies of suffering, resilience, national emergence, and connection to country. This thesis contributes to an understanding of heritage practices by Serbs who have resettled in Australia. In particular, it focuses on Serb migrants in Sydney and their connection to heritage sites across their former homes. Migrants’ engagement with heritage has often been informed by broad cultural memories of victimhood, which often extended beyond a particular war to inform a deep sense of historical injustice and nationhood. Participants frequently described being hurt by the perception of being collectively deemed guilty of aggression and atrocities in the Bosnian War (1992–1995), as well as a sense of culpability for broader inter-ethnic tension in the Balkans. The perception of collective guilt was aggravated by a sense of frustration that Australians more broadly refused to recognise Serbs’ own suffering and victimhood during conflict. My research aims to understand how migrants’ engagement with cultural heritage is informed by historical narratives of victimhood, and how this sense of injustice can be framed as a nation’s cultural memories. The research explores how sites of memory reveal migrants’ interconnected understandings of national emergence and victimhood. By visiting sites of significance to participants, I examined how these narratives of Serb suffering in the Balkans are used to articulate their sense of victimhood and resilience in Australia. I argue that by analysing heritage sites and ethno-symbolism associated with different historical periods, it is possible to explore different typologies of victimhood that inform Serbian identities and cultural memories across the diaspora.