In conversation with Y-Dang Troeung’s meditation, in Landbridge, on the unacknowledged loss of her mother’s brothers, this intergenerational dialogue reflects on refugee grief, not as a private or depoliticized sentiment, but as a resource for confronting the conditions under which certain lives are considered more grievable than others. For Yến, the public execution of her beloved cậu hai (oldest maternal uncle) was both a private loss and a public remembrance. For Evyn, the death of her ông hai (granduncle), whom she never met, profoundly shaped her understanding of family, loss, and the politics of remembering. The piece asks: Who owns the dead, and to what end? Who uses the dead, and how? What is the relationship between private grief, public memory, and intergenerational inheritance? How can the next generation commemorate the loss of their elders while forging new pathways and posing new questions about our current moment and beyond?
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