Researching postcolonial memory: creativity and participation in contexts of colonialism and the British South Asian diaspora

This article sets out methodological principles for conducting postcolonial memory studies research. Pasts associated with colonialism and their contemporary social articulation can be empirically challenging for several reasons, including their uncertain, often inarticulable, contradictory, and painful nature, which materialise in social research encounters. To navigate such challenges, we argue for the value and application of creative methodologies centring on food and cooking, textiles, music-making, and photography. Using explorations of postcolonial memories of the South Asian diaspora, including the Partition of British India, the Bangladesh War of Independence, and associated experiences of migration, we argue that such creative methodologies, which combine traditional ethnographic tools and more experimental participatory cultural activities, provide fertile entry points for research which is inclusive of diverse postcolonial perspectives and positionalities, sensitive to painful pasts, and engages with mnemonic uncertainties.