Boon’s archival research—in Suriname, the Netherlands, the UK, and Canada—brings her opportunities to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of the archives themselves, the tangliness of oceanic migration, histories, the meaning of legacy, music, love, freedom, memory, ruin, and imagination. Ultimately, she reflected on the relevance of our past to understanding our present.
Deeply informed by archival research and current scholarship, but written as a reflective and intimate memoir, What the Oceans Remember addresses current issues in migration, identity, belonging, and history through an interrogation of race, ethnicity, gender, archives and memory. More importantly, it addresses the relevance of our past to understanding our present. It shows the multiplicity of identities and origins that can shape the way we understand our histories and our own selves.
Sonja Boon is Professor of Gender Studies at Memorial University. An award-winning researcher, writer, teacher, and flutist, she is passionate abut life writing, archives, and identity. For six years, she was principal flutist of the Portland Baroque Orchestra (Oregon). In 2020, she was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies. What the Oceans Remember is her fourth book.