Creative memory, methodology, and the postcolonial imagination

Researching memories of painful pasts can pose methodological challenges. The articulation of memories of the 1947 Partition and associated processes of migration therefore require a participant-centred approach. Creative methods have the potential to address difficulties in elicitation through participation and collaboration. This chapter presents the creative methodological approach developed in the Migrant Memory and the Post-colonial Imagination project. We explore how cooking, sewing and photography can evoke memories; create opportunities for participants to approach feelings of belonging, discrimination and marginalisation in oblique ways; and provide safe spaces for their articulation. We argue that creative methods provide the space for collaborative and nuanced understandings of the role memory plays in community and belonging in South Asian diasporic communities.