Monuments Without Ground: Augmented Reality and Diasporic Practices of Remembrance

In postwar Sri Lanka, state-sponsored monuments and sacred sites reinforce Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism while suppressing Tamil commemorative practices. This paper examines how Tamil war survivors in Canada reimagine remembrance despite displacement and the erasure of collective memory. Focusing on two augmented reality (AR) public art projects in Toronto, I explore how site-responsive digital interventions function as counter-monuments, creating participatory spaces of mourning, protest, and community memory. I argue that AR commemoration challenges monumentality's dependence on permanent, land-based forms, expands digital protest across Sri Lanka and Canada, and enables collective remembrance beyond the reach of state control and spatial restriction.