Empowerment, Advocacy, and Change
Restoration and Extension of Traditional Culture in Rural Cambodia: Shifting Identity from Victims to Cultural Participants
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kandice Hauf
This proposed paper will examine how Cambodian artists are working to renew and extend engagement with traditional music at the village level. In particular, it will analyze the impact of Arn Chorn Pond in training poor young people as musicians and, with his Khmer Magic Music Bus (KMMB), bringing free traditional music performance and education to rural Cambodians. In addition to suffering from decades of civil unrest, historians estimate that 90% of the musicians, dancers, and artists died under the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime from 1975-1979. In their attempts at healing, remembrance, and empowerment, Cambodian artists have been using traditional culture to deemphasize the collective memory of the KR years, and shift Cambodians’ identity from victims of genocide to producers of global culture. As a child Arn Chorn Pond survived the KR by playing music to entertain his guards then escaping to a Thai refugee camp. Arn was adopted by an American clergyman and in order to heal himself told his story as an advocate for human rights. Returning to Cambodia he co-founded the NGO Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) in order to find, support, record, and provide teaching opportunities for elderly musicians. CLA has also commissioned new operas performed in urban venues in Cambodia and Western cities. Realizing that many villagers had never heard traditional music, Arn started the KMMB in 2013. This paper asks if this availability of traditional culture might restore a positive cultural heritage to rural Cambodians.
Performing Creativity towards a Pedagogical Praxis: Examining the Tensions Underpinning the Inclusion of a Radical Art Practice in Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laurence Dube-Rushby
The research aims to investigate the ways in which a live art practice may be considered as a pedagogic experience. It may reveal new understandings of the potential role of live-art in secondary education and examines the tensions which underpin the inclusion of a radical practice in the education system. It will be underpinned by a radical constructivist epistemology and wishes to inform the development of a critical pedagogical framework under the light of performance study. The methodology I employed in this research follows a triangulation model integrating practice, theory and self-reflexivity. It takes a qualitative approach, using elements of auto-ethnography, ethnography and action research to include interviews, a focus group with artists and teachers, and participants- The project is set as an artist residency in secondary school to involve students in live art activities. During this time, discussions around the topics of Identity and Inter-subjectivity will generate actions that are reflected upon as metacognitive processes. The paper will present D-DARE as a Dialogic, Disruptive, Artistic, Reflexive Exploration, as an emerging methodology that is designed and refined through the process of research. I will present the first findings generated by action research and interviews. It will reveal the possible ways DARE may contribute to young people’s developmental process. As an early stage researcher, the presentation of the paper will be an opportunity to generate peer reviews.
A Community Arts Based Approach to Socially Just Integrated Knowledge Translation and Mobilization: A Research Study with and for Women Living with HIV in Canada
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Saara Greene, Allyson Ion
“Women, ART, and the Criminalization of HIV” (WATCH), is a community arts based research study investigating the multiple ways that the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure impacts women living with HIV across Canada. Body Mapping workshops took place in three Canadian provinces where participants were guided through a series of visual art exercises accompanied by an end of day sharing circle. Participants expressed their life journeys through drawing and painting, and chose colours, symbols, and words to communicate their experiences. The Body Maps stimulated possibilities for personal growth and transformation, and catalyzed dialogue about individual, communal, and structural issues. As part of our commitment to addressing social justice issues through arts based research, we included an arts based knowledge translation (ABKT) process during and following each workshop in two critical ways. First, we incorporated art making for the purpose of providing legal education and support to workshop participants. Second, we curated provincial, national and international Body Map Art Galleries to raise awareness about the personal, political, legal and social issues affecting the women and their communities. The Body Map galleries visually reflected the diversity of the women’s social positionings, identities, and strengths, and the complexity surrounding HIV disclosure to sexual partners. This presentation will describe our approach to Body Mapping research, ABKT and knowledge mobilization. We will demonstrate the potential to use Body Maps as an innovative and effective approach to addressing social injustices through garnering the attention of legal advocates, health and social care policy leaders, and the general public.
Art Practise as a Tool to Empower Communities: Using Art as a Medium for Personal Growth and Development in Remote Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eliska Skarolkova
This research is about using art as a medium for personal growth and development in remote communities living in poverty and extreme conditions. The town of Mariakani and its surrounding villages in Kenya experience a high incidence of diseases. The prevalence of these diseases is caused in part by a lack of awareness about hygiene and common prevention practices, as well as by a heavily polluted environment. To exacerbate these conditions, extreme poverty creates gaps between the poor and the poorer which results in further social problems and lack of community respect. And unfulfilled self-actualization leads to lack of self-esteem, negatively impacting members of the entire community. There is a need for addressing both the physical and mental health challenges in the area. Creation of art has proved to have benefits on human‘s mental wellbeing that is closely related to physical health. The practice and the product of art can be a medium that spreads awareness about the causes and effects of these diseases. Using art makes the learning content more accessible by interacting with it in a playful way. Also, the creation of art helps us develop creative problem solving and imagination. Developing creativity and consciousness gives space for empowering the community to fight their daily problems and be able to live more as they like. This research discovers the influence of art on how people perceive the world, the benefits of art practice, and how we can harness this practice in the area of social sustainability.
