Download or read book Photography, Memory, and Refugee Identity written by Lynda Mannik and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2013-04-20 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 13 December 1948, a small ship carrying 347 Estonian refugees fleeing Soviet rule arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax. In Photography, Memory, and Refugee Identity, anthropologist Lynda Mannik analyzes the refugee experience through the photographic record of those who made that harrowing voyage across the Atlantic more than sixty years ago. Drawing on a collection of photographs taken during the voyage and at the Pier 21 detention centre, Mannik asks surviving passengers to describe their migration, their reception in Canada, and their feelings about the terms refugee and boat person. She explores to what extent the photos reflect the passengers’ experiences as they remember them and how those experiences compare with representations of refugees in news media, in government rhetoric, and at the Pier 21 Museum in Halifax. Ultimately, Mannik demonstrates that the photographs in the SS Walnut collection bear witness to the refugee experience even as the meanings attached to them have changed over time and in shifting contexts.