Using visual and mobile methods in the home

This paper provides methodological insights into everyday routines and encounters in the homes of Sri Lankan refugees settling in Sydney, Australia. The home is a frequented place which facilitates our daily interactions and routines where person-place bonds can develop. A critical ethnography, including the use of visual and mobile methods, can uncover how our person to person, person to place and non-human interactions shape and (re)create the home. In this research, an ethnographic method comprised two parts: first, a walk-along interview in each participant’s home was combined with videography followed by an in-depth interview. This visual ethnography has sought to reveal the journeys, stories, and memories of refugees as they settle. Part of these journeys, stories, and memories involve understanding how Sri Lankan refugees (re)create feelings of being ‘at home’ – through their daily practices, sensory articulations and encounters with objects – that foster (or not) their settlement in a host city.<p></p>