Portraits of Grief and the Curated Memory of Our Pandemic Losses: Instagram as a Digital Gravesite for Decolonial Mourning

The COVID‑19 pandemic disrupted embodied Filipino mourning—lamay (wake), pa‑siyam (nine‑day novena), and babang‑luksa (end of mourning)—and rerouted grief into platformed spaces. As of mid‑October 2025, more than 7.1 million COVID‑19 deaths had been recorded worldwide (World Health Organization, 2025). In the Philippines, prolonged and severe lockdowns disrupted communal rites and intensified reliance on digital platforms (Cook, 2021, pp. 237–243). This paper reports completed research that theorizes Instagram as a digital gravesite where Filipino millennials curated grief during and after lockdowns, and demonstrates how curation enact decolonial, relational care rather than mere visibility work. The study is anchored in Sikolohiyang Pilipino—particularly kapwa (shared identity), pakikiramay (sympathy), and pakikidalamhati (sahred burden)—and braided with curation (McKeon, Reilly, Flores) and platform studies (Davis; Leaver, Highfield & Abidin). Methodologically, it combines critical autoethnography with semi‑structured interviews (n=5; purposive sample of Metro Manila millennials who memorialized kin on Instagram) and close reading of platform artifacts (posts, Stories, Highlights, captions, “Memories” nudges). The paper advances a conceptual reframing of curation under algorithmic conditions and contributes design implications for grief‑sensitive platforms, pedagogy for teaching platform vernaculars of mourning, and decolonial critiques of Western‑centric digital death frameworks.