As discussed in the Introduction, cultural trauma occurs when the taken-for-granted foundations of a collective identity are fractured and are made the object of critical debate. Most commonly, there is some precipitating occurrence of great social and political disruption—a war or natural catastrophe—that acts as catalyst. This sets in motion a trauma drama, with collective efforts to locate the causes, to name those responsible, and to identify the necessary steps towards recovery and repair. The re-narration of collective identity is central to this process. The discourse around collective identity is intimately intertwined with collective memory. Such identity, or identification—be it with family, an institution or profession, ethnic group, or nation—is rooted in a reconstructed past as well as present and is as concerned with the future as the past. This selected and filtered past, lying somewhere between myth and history, takes form in a narrative, a shared story of who ‘we’ are and came to be, as well as being embodied in material objects such as memorials and museums and embedded in ritual practices like holiday celebrations and commemorations.