Journal of History and Culture Journal of History and Culture

j o u r n a l o f h i s t o r y a n d c u l t u r e
the way around the circle… from life to death and then back to life again… the Spirit
Ring… that’s important… it’s everything… death… life… remembrance… tradition,
all in one… death… because of the tragedy… life…because you get to see the people
through the Doorways (Portals) …it’s their portal… from death (inner walkway inside
the Spirit Ring) to life (Portals) through remembrance. The ring is empty now… earlier,
the bonfire used to be there… now, it is empty… because the bonfire tradition… the
ceremony has died off…
Structured interviews also showed that most people liked being at the center of Spirit Ring and thought of
the black granite stone at the center as a ‘focal point’ for experiencing the Memorial. The center stone was thought
of as an ‘orientation point’ with relation to the Portals, for locating the hometowns of the deceased. One person
associated the center stone with ‘death’. People had also begun a ritual of leaving coins on the center stone, possibly
as a sign of remembrance and well-wish. Some related comments regarding the experience and significance of the
black granite stone at the center of Spirit Ring were (excerpts from separate interviews):
… You need to stand at the center of the circle… to locate the hometowns… It is quite
amazing… to stand at the center and look within the doorways…
… people have begun leaving coins on that stone in the center… its kindda like a
remembrance thing… it may be an act of externalizing the fact that you remember the
people who died there, by placing a coin… it may actually evolve into an aggie tradition…
to leave coins like that. The center… allows you to locate their hometowns… it feels really
weird standing in the center there… weird in a good way. I don’t really know whether
words can describe the feeling… six years back, that was exactly where the center of the
Bonfire was… to think that it was this very place where it all happened. It give me goose
bumps just thinking about it…
… it feels kindda strange being at the center… they put the center stone in… but they
didn’t put any pathway leading to it. You feel like you are in the open there… but that’s the
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