Description
Sonja Boon's heritage is complicated. Although she has lived in Canada for more than 30 years, she was born in the UK to a Surinamese mother and a Dutch father. An invitation to join a family tree project inspired a journey to the heart of the histories that have shaped her identity, as she sought to answer two questions that have dogged her over the years: Where does she belong? And who does she belong to?
Boon's archival research--in Suriname, the Netherlands, the UK, and Canada--brings her opportunities to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of the archives themselves, the tangliness of oceanic migration, histories, the meaning of legacy, music, love, freedom, memory, ruin, and imagination. Ultimately, she reflected on the relevance of our past to understanding our present.
Deeply informed by archival research and current scholarship, but written as a reflective and intimate memoir, What the Oceans Remember addresses current issues in migration, identity, belonging, and history through an interrogation of race, ethnicity, gender, archives and memory. More importantly, it addresses the relevance of our past to understanding our present. It shows the multiplicity of identities and origins that can shape the way we understand our histories and our own selves.
Author: Sonja Boon
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Published: 03/01/2022
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9781771125536
ISBN10: 1771125535
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional | African American & Black
- Social Science | Emigration & Immigration
- Social Science | Women's Studies