Paper short abstract:

Transgenerational and transformative memory-work involves the temporal and embodied interplay of memory and imagination. It is a lens to understand the co-implication of multiple temporalities in people's lives and projects and the dynamics of transgenerational and collective memory formation.

Paper long abstract:

Stories and narratives among Muslims of their survivance in colonial and postcolonial Philippines that are passed on through generations have shaped the civic and political subjectivities of Muslim youths who are active in the Bangsamoro's struggle for the right to self-determination. This transgenerational and transformative memory-work involves the temporal and embodied interplay of memory and imagination that links the past, present, and future and through which individual stories and experiences connect with the collective story and generations are bridged. Muslim youths' commemorative-imaginative practices create a sense of shared heritage, break the hierarchies of humanness and the colonial logics of violence, erasure, and subjugation, and are part of their struggle to have a peaceful and prosperous life and a future of self-determination. This is an imagined future that, in many ways, is a departure from the violent past and the precarious present. In their own ways, and drawing on the resources available to them amid the challenges of being young and Muslim in the Philippines, these youths are changing the present and shaping the future of the Bangsamoro.