Family After the Genocide: Preserving Ethnic and Kinship Continuity Among Second-Generation Australian-Bosniak Immigrants

Abstract

The subject of transgenerational legacies of war and forced migration has been increasingly gaining traction in the academic sphere. However, most of these studies yielded clinical implications, neglecting the role of culture in responding to the crisis engendered through the wholesale destruction of communities. The present paper examines how compounding of these phenomena impacted the formation of the social identities among the second-generation Bosniak¹ migrants, whose parents survived the genocide in Srebrenica three decades ago and were forced to resettle in Australia. I focus on their family and homemaking practices in the diaspora by drawing upon findings from my ethnographic fieldwork in Melbourne. I found that the shared experience of place-based trauma of genocide serves as a connective tissue that binds the children survivors in “trans-local endogamous” marital unions through which they seek to preserve, perform and reproduce their unique (trans)local, cultural, as well as relational identities.

Keywords:

• Srebrenica
• genocide
• Muslims
• migration
• kinship
• refugees

Acknowledgements

This paper is derived from my PhD research project on the impact of the unresolved issue of the missing persons from the Bosnian war on the surviving family members resettled in Australia and the USA. My thesis is part of the greater research project How the Missing Matter: Gaps, Absences and Silences in Three Diaspora Contexts, developed by my senior supervisor and C.I. Professor Hariz Halilovich, for which he obtained funding from the Australian Research Council (A.R.C.). My findings are based on my ongoing ethnographic engagement with the forcibly resettled communities from Prijedor and Srebrenica with whom I conducted interviews between May 2021 and April 2022. I would like to thank my mentor for appointing me for the present study, my participants who share their life stories, moments and remembrances for this purpose, as well as A.R.C and R.M.I.T. University for funding different aspects of the research.

Notes

1 In July 1995, in the UN-protected area of Srebrenica, 8000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were summarily killed by the Bosnian Serb Forces. Their massacred corpses were hidden in the huge mass graves, then subsequently re-buried in the “secondary” mass graves with aim of concealing the evidence of the crime. The massacres in Srebrenica have been internationally denounced and officially recognised as the genocide (cf. ICTY 2001—Prosecutor v. Radislav Krstić: https://www.icty.org/x/cases/krstic/tjug/en/krs-tj010802e.pdf).

2 During the war, the eastern Bosnian town of Goražde was declared as another U.N.-protected zone after it had been besieged and targeted by the Bosnian Serb Army and rebels (cf. Michael C. Williams, “Review of Perceptions of the War in Bosnia, by Roger Cohen, Chuck Sudetic, Richard Holbrooke, and Michael Rose”, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 75, No. 2, 1999, pp. 377–381).

3 Partially missing refers to the fact that so far only his skull was retrieved, while the rest of the skeleton, like of many others, is dispersed between different mass graves and possibly forensic mortuaries.

4 Biljeljina, the municipality in the North-East of Bosnia on the border with Serbia was the first to fall and lose almost all of its Bosniak population. A systematic ethnic cleansing campaign was put initiated to extort and expel the remaining Bosniaks from the territory (see Bosnia-Herzegovina: Living for the Day—Forced Expulsions from Bijeljina and Janja—Report, Amnesty International. 21 December 1994. EUR 63/022/1994). According to some estimates out of 30,000 pre-war Bosniaks living in Bijeljina, today less than 3000 remained.

5 Bratunac is another town considered to belong to the Srebrenica enclave.

6 Bosniak is the official term for the ethnic group also known as Bosnian Muslims.

7 Marko A. Hoare, “Towards an Explanation for the Bosnian Genocide of 1992–1995”, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2014, pp. 516–532; Marie E. Berry, War, Women, and Power, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

8 Hariz Halilovich, “Beyond the Sadness: Memories and Homecomings Among Survivors of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in a Bosnian Village”, Memory Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2011, pp. 42–52; Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory, and Trans-Local Identities in Bosnian War-Torn Communities, New York: Berghahn Books, 2013; Howard Ball, Working in the Killing Fields: Forensic Science in Bosnia, Lincoln: Nebraska Potomac Books Inc., 2015; Edina Bećirević, Genocide on the River Drina, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.

9 Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.

10 Roy Gutman, Witness to Genocide, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993; Hariz Halilovich, “Lessons from Srebrenica: The United Nations after Bosnia”, in The United Nations and Genocide, ed. D. Mayersen, London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 77–100; Hariz Halilovich, Writing After Srebrenica/Kako Opisati Srebrenicu, Sarajevo: Buybook, 2017; Hasan Hasanović, Surviving Srebrenica, Aberdeenshire: Lumphanan Press, 2016; Hasan Nuhanović, Under the Un Flag: The International Community and the Srebrenica Genocide, Sarajevo: DES, 2007; Hasan Nuhanović, The Last Refuge, London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2012; Chuck Sudetic, “Deaths Cast Shadow on Vote in Yugoslav Republic”, New York Times, New York City, February 1, 1992, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/01/world/deaths-cast-shadow-on-vote-in-yugoslav-republic.html (accessed on January 2021).

11 Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.; Admir Jugo and Sari Wastell, “Disassembling the Pieces, Reassembling the Social”, in Human Remains and Identification: Mass Violence, Genocide, and the Forensic Turn, eds. E. Gessat-Anstett and J.M. Dreyfus, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016, pp. 142–172.

12 Caroline Fournet, The Crime of Destruction and the Law of Genocide: Their Impact on Collective Memory, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007; Jan W. Honig and Norbert Both, Srebrenica: Record of a War Crime, New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1996; ICTY, Prijedor: Milomir Stakić, (IT-97-24). Case Report for Press Release, The Haague, 2001, pp. 137–139.

13 Dženeta Karabegović, “Who Chooses to Remember? Diaspora Participation in Memorialization Initiatives”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2019, pp. 1911–1929.

14 Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.

15 Lara J. Nettelfield and Sarah E. Wagner, Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

16 This is the official term for people originating from the localities along the Drina Valley (Podrinje). For people coming from Srebrenica, I use the term Srebreničani (pl.).

17 Norman Cigar, Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in Eastern Europe, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995; Hariz Halilovich, “New Land and Old Sorrow: War Widows and Fatherless Families in Bosnian Refugee Diaspora”, Memory Trauma Healing, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2014, pp. 73–90; Hariz Halilovich, ‘Sveprisutna Odsutnost Nestalih u Genocidu: Ratne Udovice i Obitelji Bez Očeva u Bosanskohercegovačkoj Dijaspori’, Migracijske i Etničke Teme / Migration and Ethnic Themes, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2019, pp. 277–295; Christian Jennings, Bosnia's Million Bones: Solving the World's Greatest Forensic Science Puzzle, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; RDC—Research and Documentation Centre, Human Losses in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1991–1995, Sarajevo: BiH, 2012.

18 My Ph.D. dissertation title is “Long-Distance Mourning for the Missing: Gaps, Absences and Silences in Two Diaspora Contexts”.

19 Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit., p. 152.

20 Jasna Čapo and Hariz Halilovich, “La localisation du Transnationalisme. Pratiques Transfrontalieres Bosniaques et Croates [The Location of Transnationalism: Cross-Border Practices]”, Ethnologie Française, Vol. 43, No. 2, 2013, p. 291.

21 To those that survived the war at an early stage of their lives, I refer to them as child survivors or 1.5 generation interchangeably.

22 George E. Marcus, “Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography”, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, No. 1, 1995, pp. 95–117.

23 Hariz Halilovich and Iris Kučuk, “Refuge(e)s in the Digital Diaspora”, Etnološka tribina, Vol. 50, No. 1, 2020, pp. 182–196.

24 L. Birt, S. Scott, D. Cavers, C. Campbell and F. Walter, “Member Checking”, Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2016, pp. 1802–1811.

25 Amber G. Candela, “Exploring the Function of Member Checking”, The Qualitative Report, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2019, pp. 619–628; Julie A. Carlson, “Avoiding Traps in Member Checking”, The Qualitative Report, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2010, pp. 1102–1113; Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry, Newbury Park: Sage, 1985.

26 Tone Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

27 Evelyn Blackwood, “Wedding Bell Blues: Marriage, Missing Men, and Matrifocal Follies”, American Ethnologist, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2005, pp. 3–19; Lisa Herlihy, “Matrifocality and Women’s Power on the Miskito Coast”, Ethnology, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2007, p. 134; Raymond T. Smith, The Matrifocal Family: Power, Pluralism, and Politics, New York: Routledge, 1996.

28 Patricia Mohammed, “The Caribbean Family Revisited”, in Gender in Caribbean Development, eds. P. Mohammed and C. Shepherd, Jamaica: Canoe Press University of the West Indies, 1986, pp. 164–175; Herlihy, “Matrifocality and Women’s Power”, op. cit, p. 137.

29 Maurice Godelier, The Metamorphoses of Kinship, London: Verso, 2004.

30 Hariz Halilovich, “Behind the Emic Lines: Ethics and Politics of Insiders’ Ethnography”, in Insider Research on Migration and Mobility: International Perspectives on Researcher Positioning, eds. L. Voloder and L. Kirpitchenko, New York: Routledge, 2016, pp. 87–102; Halilovich and Kučuk, “Refuge(e)s in the Digital Diaspora”, op. cit.

31 Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit., pp. 155–200.

32 Peter Kunstadter, The Lua’ (Lawa) of Northern Thailand: Aspects of Social Structure, Agriculture, and Religion, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965, p. 57.

33 Douglas J. Davies, “Classics Revisited—Robert Hertz: The Social Triumph Over Death”, Mortality, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2000, pp. 97–102; Robert Hertz, Death and the Right Hand, London: Cohen and West, 1960.

34 Kingsley Davis and Lloyd W. Warner, “Structural Analysis of Kinship”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 39, No. 2, 1997, pp. 291–313.

35 Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian Way, op. cit.

36 Julia Meszaros, “Race, Space, and Agency in the International Introduction Industry: How American Men Perceive Women’s Agency in Colombia, Ukraine and the Philippines”, Gender, Place and Culture, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2018, pp. 268–287; Andrei Simic, The Ethnology of Traditional and Complex Societies, A.A.A.S. Study Guides on Contemporary Problems, Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science and Natural Science Foundation, 1971.

37 Keith Doubt and Adnan Tufekčić, Ethnic and National Identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Kinship and Solidarity in a Polyethnic Society, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019.

38 D. Atifa, “Why Rajput Practice Exogamy: Anthropological Perspective”, The Belogradchik Journal for Local History, Cultural Heritage and Folk Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2013, pp. 344–370; Gay E. Kang, Marry-Out or Die-Out: A Cross-cultural Examination of Exogamy and Survival Value, Amherst: Council on International Studies, 1982.

39 June D. Owen, “Mixed Marriages: Interracial Marriages in Australia”, Sydney Papers, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2002, pp. 176–186; J. Kim, S-H. Park, M. Kim and S.Y. Kim, “Exploring Issues and Strengths of Cross-Cultural Marriage Among Korean Immigrants”, Health Care for Women International, Vol. 38, No. 10, 2017, pp. 1095–1114.

40 George P. Murdock, “Social Organization”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 51, No. 2, 1949, p. 1; H.W. Scheffler, “The Social Consequences of Peace on Choiseul Island”, Ethnology, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1964, p. 398; Claude Levi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship (Les structures elementaires de la parente), London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1969; Cited in Kang, Marry-Out or Die-Out, op. cit., p. 90.

41 Brenda Seligman, “The Problem of Incest and Exogamy: A Restatement”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 52, No. 3, 1950, p. 308.

42 Joseph Whitemeyer, “Endogamy as a Basis for Ethnic Behavior”, Sociological Theory, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1997, pp. 162–178.

43 Ibid.

44 Robert J. Donia and John V.A. Fine, “Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 3, 1994, pp. 181–182; Nikolai Botev, “Where East Meets West: Ethnic Intermarriage in the Former Yugoslavia, 1962 to 1989”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 59, No. 3, 1994, pp. 461–480; Jeroen Smits, “Ethnic Intermarriage and Social Cohesion”, Social Indicators Research, Vol. 96, No. 1, 2009, pp. 417–432; Hannah Keziah Conrad, “Dwelling in the Place of Devastation: Transcendence and the Everyday in Recovery from Trauma”, Anthropological Theory, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2014, pp. 74–91.

45 Azra Hromadzic, “Bathroom Mixing: Youth Negotiate Democratization in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina”, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2011, pp. 268–289; Donia and Fine, “Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed”, op. cit., p. 6; Fran Markowitz, “Census and Sensibilities in Sarajevo”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 49, No. 1, 2007, pp. 40–73.

46 Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian Way, op. cit.; Xavier Bougarel, Bosnie: Anatomie d’un Conflit, Paris: La Découverte, 1996; Cornelia Sorabji, “A Very Modern War: Terror and Territory in Bosnia-Hercegovina”, in War: A Cruel Necessity? The Bases of Institutionalized Violence, eds. H. Watson and R. A. Hinde, London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1995, pp. 80–95.

47 C.A. Morrison, L. Johnston and R. Longhurst, “Critical Geographies of Love as Spatial, Relational and Political”, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 37, No. 4, 2012, pp. 505–521.

48 Azra Hromadžić, Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-making in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

49 Susan T. Fiske, “Controlling Other People: The Impact of Power on Stereotyping”, American Psychologist, Vol. 48, No. 1, 1993, pp. 621–628.

50 Hannah Keziah Conrad, “Achieving the Ordinary: Everyday Peace and the Other in Bosnian Mixed-Ethnicity Families”, Conflict and Society, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2019, pp. 1–18.

51 Keziah Conrad, “Dwelling in the Place of Devastation”, op. cit., p. 40; Doubt and Tufekčić, Ethnic and National Identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, op. cit.

52 Nicola Nixon, Rende Sevinc and Dorothy Rosenberg, “Social Embeddedness, Social Protection and Conflict Potential in the Successor States of the Former Yugoslavia”, Working Paper, 2010; Fedja Buric, “Becoming Mixed: Mixed Marriages of Bosnia-Herzegovina During the Life and Death of Yugoslavia”, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012.

53 Jelena Gaković and Asja Prohić, “Mixed Marriages and Their Descendants in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Living in the Land of Reduced Identity”, Paper presented at International Conference: New Research Challenges on Intermarriage and Mixedness in Europe and Beyond Paris, November 12–13, 2015, University Paris Sorbonne, https://www.academia.edu/18005018/Mixed_marriages_and_their_descendants_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina_Living_in_the_land_of_reduced_identity.

54 Hromadzic, “Bathroom Mixing”, op. cit.

55 Hariz Halilovich, “Trans-Local Communities in the Age of Transnationalism: Bosnians in Diaspora”, International Migration, Vol. 50, No. 1, 2012, p. 163; Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit., pp. 155–200; Hariz Halilovich, “Bosnian Austrians: Accidental Migrants in Trans-Local and Cyber Spaces”, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4, 2013, pp. 524–540; Hariz Halilovich, “Reclaiming Erased Lives: Archives, Records and Memories in Post-War Bosnia and the Bosnian Diaspora”, Archival Science, Vol. 14, No. 3–4, 2014, pp. 231–247; Halilovich, “Lessons from Srebrenica”, op. cit.

56 Matthijs Kalmijn, “Intermarriage and Homogamy: Causes, Patterns, Trends”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 24, No. 1, 1998, pp. 395–421; Cristian R. Schwartz, “Trends and Variation in Assortative Mating: Causes and Consequences”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2013, pp. 451–470.

57 Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit., pp. 155–200.

58 Ibid.

59 Ghassan Hage, “Waiting Out the Crisis: On Stuckedness and Governmentality”, in Waiting, ed. G. Hage, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2009, pp. 97–106. https://www.academia.edu/1990512/Waiting_out_the_crisis_on_stuckedness_and_governmentality (accessed 15 January 2022).

60 Ralitza Dimova and Francois-Charles Wolff, “Remittances and Chain Migration: Longitudinal Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 51, No. 5, 2015, pp. 554–568; Jo Jakobsen, “Bosnia and the Remittances–Institutions–Development Nexus”, in The Bosnian Diaspora, eds. M. Valenta and S.P. Ramet, London: Routledge, 2011; Anne Croegaert, Bosnian Refugees in Chicago: Gender, Performance and Post-War Economies, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020.

61 Nora Pierre, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire”, Representations, Vol. 1, No. 26, 1989, pp. 7–24.

62 Nettelfield and Wagner, Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide, op. cit., p. 79.

63 Ibid., p. 150.

64 Maurice Halbwachs, The Collective Memory, New York: Harper & Row, 1980 [1950], p. 63.

65 ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics), “Main Features—Religion Data Summary”, Australian Bureau of Statistics, July 2016, https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Religion%20Data%20Summary~70 (accessed 28 April 2022); Craig Butt, “Melbourne Language Study Reveals a Cacophony of Diversity”, The Age, July 11, 2014, https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-language-study-reveals-a-cacophony-of-diversit-20140711-zt4b4.html (accessed 28 April 2022).

66 Siew-Ean Khoo, “Chapter 6: Intermarriage, Integration and Multiculturalism: A Demographic Perspective”, in Multiculturalism and Integration, eds. M. Clyne and J. Jupp, Canberra: ANU Press, 2009.

67 Hannah Kulu and Tina Hannemann, “Mixed Marriages Among Immigrants and Their Descendants in the United Kingdom: Analysis of Longitudinal Data with Missing Information”, Population Studies, Vol. 73, No. 2, 2019, pp. 179–196.

68 Ibid.; Hill Kulu and Amparo Gonzalez-Ferrer, “Family Dynamics Among Immigrants and Their Descendants in Europe: Current Research and Opportunities”, European Journal of Population, Vol. 30, No. 4, 2014, pp. 411–435; Miri Song, “Is Intermarriage a Good Indicator of Integration?”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2009, pp. 331–348.

69 Halilovich, “Trans-Local Communities in the Age of Transnationalism”, op. cit.; Halilovich, “Bosnian Austrians”, op. cit.; Halilovich, “Reclaiming Erased Lives”, op. cit.

70 Hariz Halilovich, “Reconstructing Identity Aussie Bosnians from Germany”, Local Global Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2006, pp. 59–72.

71 Zvornik is another town that suffered genocidal violence by Serb perpetrators, among which they have been convicted for: forcible transfer and deportation, murder, unlawful detention, torture (crimes against humanity) and wanton destruction, plunder of property etc. According to RDC a total number of 3936 people were killed or went missing in the municipality of Zvornik during the Bosnian war, among which 2017 were Bosniak civilians.

72 Halilovich, “Reconstructing Identity Aussie Bosnians”, op. cit.

73 Halilovich, “Beyond the Sadness”,op. cit.

74 Halilovich, “Bosnian Austrians”, op. cit.; Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.; H. Halilovich, “Long-Distance Mourning and Synchronised Memories in a Global Context: Commemorating Srebrenica in Diaspora”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2015, pp. 410–422; H. Halilovich, “Reclaiming Erased Lives”, op. cit.

75 Halilovich, “Reconstructing Identity Aussie Bosnians”, op. cit.

76 Halilovich, “Bosnian Austrians”, op. cit.

77 Kozarac is part of Prijedor municipality which suffered grave human loss and injustice during the war, where 53,000 Bosnian Muslims were forcibly expelled, and 30,000 went through the Serb-held concentration camps, where thousands lost their lives to inhumane torture and ill-treatment and went missing. The fieldwork in Prijedor is part of my Ph.D. research.

78 Zdravko Čolić is a famous ex-Yugoslav singer, and Bijelo Dugme was among the most prominent Yugoslav new wave rock bands. Their sounds effectively represented the cultural unity of the Yugoslav youth before it dissipated.

79 Džemat (Arabic: Jamaat) means assembly, group or congregation, and in Bosniak culture, it refers to the local members of the mosque—the local Muslim community.

80 I learnt that 1.5 generation of Srebrenica survivors who established friendships early on through schools and growing up together in the same suburbs have maintained the ties and still hang out together; although this trend is dropping as the new generations arrive, which lose their language and integrate smoothly into Australian mainstream society.

81 Nancy Foner, “The Immigrant Family: Cultural Legacies and Cultural Changes”, International Migration Review, Vol. 31, No. 4, 1997, p. 961; Gillian Stevens, “Ethnic Endogamy in Cross-nativity Marriages” [Unpublished paper], Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada, 2013. https://epc2014.princeton.edu/papers/141097 (accessed 15 January 2022).

82 Robert D. Stolrow, “The Phenomenology of Trauma and the Absolutisms of Everyday Life: A Personal Journey”, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1999, p. 16.

83 Denise H. Sandole and Carl Auerbach, “Dissociation and Identity Transformation in Female Survivors of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: A Qualitative Research Study’, Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2013, pp. 127–137.

84 Interestingly the very same person who understood her concerns was in exogamous marriage herself, and in the post-resettlement period her son married someone with a completely different cultural background that actually produced a lot of intrafamilial tensions.

85 The red veil is actually a Turkish tradition, but the bride explained that in her mother's region (Eastern Bosnia) it was customarily worn as well (cf. Adem Aydemir, “Upon the Red Veil Tradition in Wedding Ceremony of Turkish World”, Journal of Turkish Studies–International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Vol. 8/9, No. 1, Summer 2013, pp. 619–655).

86 Sevdalinka is a traditional Bosnian song, marked by slow-paced rhythm and intense sentimental melodies (cf. Ennis Cehic, “The Melancholia of Sevdah”, Meanjin, 2019, https://meanjin.com.au/memoir/the-melancholia-of-sevdah/ (accessed 27 April 2022).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ARC (Australian Research Council) [grant number FT180100162].

Notes on contributors

Amina Hadžiomerović

Amina Hadžiomerović is a PhD student and a member of the Social and Global Studies Centre at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. With a background in psychology, she is currently working on her anthropological study on the subject of the unresolved issue of the missing persons from the Bosnian genocide and its impact on the surviving family members in the diaspora. Her research interests are missing persons, migration, memory, genocide and diaspora studies.