The relationship between territory and memory is considered from a human point of view since a territory is defined as an area of land belonging to a specific country hence the notion of war which is often the claim for a territory. The notion of memory goes hand in hand with it since the evolution of territories makes history. Memory is the capacity to remember what happened in the past and history allows human beings to pass down their memories.
However the connection between memory and territory seems to be more and more debatable and we may quote several examples to illustrate this. Indeed individual memory doesn’t always match collective memory which is very controversial nowadays. Individual memory tells something different from the collective one, is it a question of interpretation or value? Anyway different points of view need to be considered in a new light. For instance we may think about slavery in the USA and the commemoration of different aspects of history in this period. Statues are being dismantled because they glorify the perpetrators of slavery, some books and films such as « Gone with the Wind » are cancelled because they are false to historical facts and too close to propaganda, what’s more they convey racist values.
Historical events are sometimes linked to geographical landmarks, colonisation played a great role in the establishment of borders and cultural heritage is built around it. The most famous American celebration of the year called Thanksgiving is being strongly criticized by native Americans; it is part of official history and culture however it has been biased in favor of the Americans (as opposed to native Americans), “On Thanksgiving, the settlers are celebrating the land and what the land produces, and how did they get that land? They took it,’ Trosper said. ‘Thanksgiving seems to be a celebration of taking the land away.”.
Another example is the UK’s neighbour which is described by Ronan McGreevy as follow: “Ireland is a country united by geography and divided by history.” Indeed Ireland’s past has defined a geographical but open border that divided the island and the advent of Brexit has questioned the establishment of a stricter border.
