Reconciling the Impossible: Forgiveness and Grief in Rwanda, New Zealand and Australia

Presenter: Elese Dowden (Confirmation milestone)

This thesis takes a multi-disciplinary approach to ethical restoration across Australia and New Zealand post-historical injustice, and Rwanda post-mass atrocity. In particular I use a Merleau-Pontian notion of trust to think about the ways in which ethical systems are created and destroyed. Additionally, I employ a maximal conception of justice, and connect these first two concepts with the Camusian notion of the absurd to think about forgiveness and healing in reconciliation and the ethical restoration of trust. Derridean forgiveness, grief and shame are also key concepts throughout this thesis, with reference to Otherness via Fanon and de Beauvoir.