Week 9_Natalie Lortz_ASA 150E

There needs to be a balance between remembering and forgetting great international atrocities such as 9/11 and of course the Viet Nam War, among other things. While immigrants and refugees are feeling nostalgic and looking towards their homelands, they also neglect to look around them at their fellow migrants. They forget to appreciate what they gain while mourning what they lost. One proposed remedy to this grief is to find yourself in a community of like-minded people with similar backgrounds and histories. There is a demand for remembrance through history for communities who have experienced war heavily. The reason for this is that war has extremely damaging impacts in the form of deaths and trauma. For certain ethnic groups, war and intense conflicts are an integral part of their history. Therefore, when these groups want to look back in their history in order to remember where they came from, some painful things can be brought up. Nguyen's reading specifically talks about Viet Nam and Cambodia, but I am writing in an all encompassing tone because I feel there are very many other groups who can relate to this thinking.
Storytelling and art are pathways to spiritual and emotional realms of expression. In my opinion, they have the power to heal trauma, and heal communities collectively. In psychology, I quickly learned about the Medical-Industrial Complex and how deeply it runs within mainstream (talk) therapy and psychiatry. I believe there are more effective ways of treatment for indigenous folks that is now receiving recognition on a broader scale. Often, these indigenous communities have been using these methods for years. Their emergence also brings light to whether it is considered "cultural appropriation" or not to use these methods. But, this, to me, is pointless because if we can not share knowledge with other people or communities in the name of healing, then what would we share it for? Whether the method is forgiveness, storytelling, art, or herbs, when one person heals, they heal the people around them.

Is there is any hope for these groups to reconcile, if not with each other than within themselves, so that we all may heal and progress together as a collective?