Nationalism, violence and diaspora memory activism: Ukrainians and Croats in Canada

It is by now a well-known fact that many nationalist causes find support in their diasporas. While scholars of diaspora engagement deliberated on diasporas as ‘peace makers' or ‘peace wreckers' and ‘constructive' or ‘destructive', more recent scholarship, based on empirical research and case studies, foregrounds context and complexity. Research on transnational memory activism, for example, examines how the efforts of diasporas can lead to the promotion, entrenchment or disavowal of the foundational logics upon which nationalisms are built, sustained or challenged. This paper addresses the impacts of diaspora memory activism in Canada on Croatian and Ukrainian nationalist sentiments and the roles memories of violence play in forging or contesting collective identification and mobilization. I discuss the persistence and consequences of memory activists’ commitments to redress for past suffering and their efforts in support of homeland nationalist causes. I ask: How does memory activism across generations reinforce or contest histories and fictions upon which commemorations are based that serve to energize nationalism and associations with violence? Moreover, what can we learn about the changing conditions and contexts in which these memories are activated, mobilized, sustained or disrupted?