Landscape and collective memory in post-conflict Ayacucho, Peru: Narratives and photography of survivors

Peru was enveloped in an internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000. The Shining Path, a militant communist group, sought to revolutionize Peru through violence. Indigenous Peruvians were targeted in extrajudicial massacres and killings. Nearly 70,000 people, mostly indigenous, were either killed or disappeared by both the Shining Path and government military forces (CVR 2004). Today, post-conflict Peru still grapples with the human rights violations of the past and is challenged to achieve reconciliation. For the victims of violence, how the memory of the conflict is conveyed is an important element of the transitional justice process (Alexander et al. 2004). My interdisciplinary research explores collective memory, the shared representation of the past that is socially constructed by a group of people (Halbwachs 1992). The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified the region of Ayacucho as the epicentre of violence during the conflict (CVR 2004, 21).