Artful Mob: an inquiry into the lived experiences of Art Yarning journeys with Indigenous people on Gunditjmara and Wathaurong Countries

The Artful Mob research project seeks to explore the lived experiences, and subsequently, the value of integrated methods of art therapy and Indigenous Knowledge Systems of knowing, being and doing. The research is, on one level, a 'meta' research project, whose goal is an essentially methodological one, and concerns the development and trial of an integrated form of method, and the demonstration of the potential value of this method, in order to make the case that it can then be used for various purposes in the future. This method involves the integration of group art therapy tools and processes and conceptions from Indigenous Knowledge systems - a method I term Art-Yarning.

This method was developed and tested it out in practice in collaboration with the Gunditjmara and Wathaurong communities in Southwestern Victoria, and this research focusses on capturing participants' reflections on what Art-Yarning means for them, and my own reflections on what the method means, in contrast or in comparison to various method ideals put forward in the literature. Thus, the research is, in a sense, an exploration of the value for social scientific research of methods derived from group art therapy - a test of whether these methods can be successfully repurposed into an exemplary form of integrated research that addresses some of the critiques that have been made of more conventional forms of social science research when applied to Indigenous communities. The research is also an exploration of what kinds of new knowledge - and, perhaps, transformation - became possible as a result of implementing this method. Therefore, the research has a dual result, with dimensions that are both substantive and methodological in character. The central methodological research questions are:

Can an integrated form of method between group art therapy and Indigenous Knowledge systems be successfully repurposed into an exemplary form of integrated research? And what kind of new knowledge - and, perhaps, what kinds of transformation - might be possible if these methods are implemented?

Ethics is an inseparable element of decolonised research and the exercise of reflexive practice, which examines and re-examines a particular approach to ethical ways of Knowing, Being and Doing, is a crucial component of this thesis. I make the foundational argument that ethical conduct in Indigenous health research necessarily involves adaptation to the local Indigenous ethics system, and therefore that the reproblematisation of existing notions and structures of ethics in Indigenous research is an ethical obligation of researchers. I engage in an example of such a process by reviewing literature relating to Values and Ethics: Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research (NHMRC, 2003). This analysis illuminates Artful Mob’s ethically challenging moments and ‘white possessive logic’ (Moreton-Robinson, 2015), whilst reinforcing critical reflexivity as a research stance.

The complex relational webs of existence applicable to the participants, myself as a researcher-participant and an immigrant, and the research itself, demand a methodological approach which liberates all actors from expectations of generality, or notions of certainty or expert insights into Indigenous social realities. I present the Art-Yarning methodology, and a related integration of knowledge systems as an enactment of ‘coalitional consciousness’ (Sandoval, 2000), as an honest, ethical, innovative and creative mirror of social and structural realities.

A further foundational assumption of this thesis is the presence of a Relational philosophy - the view of purposeful connectedness between everything on earth and beyond, across Indigenous and art therapy knowledge systems. I frame this assumption through a review of the literature on art-based research in the social sciences, in order to demonstrate that art therapy, although a Western product, shares similar paradigms of Knowing, Being and Doing as those of Indigenous knowledge systems pertaining to these three conceptual zones.

To do this, I review prominent theoretical conceptions across Australian Indigenous scholarship, art therapy and the works of postcolonial theorists (Frantz Fanon, Edward Said and Homi Bhabha) to seek theoretical support to the thesis of a common Relational standpoint across the two knowledge domains. I aim to demonstrate that such relationality has micro parallels in processes of group art therapy. The image, art materials, space, what happens and what does not happen, the sharing or non-sharing with the group, are all entities which contribute to the understanding of one’s self and thus, their existence.

Finally, in the Knowledge Synthesis chapter, I share examples of how the integrated Art-Yarning method both describes and creates the social realities of participants. The Art-Yarnings re-told here stand for more than findings reportage and intellectual engagement with comparison to existing literature - instead, structural choices ensure a balance between an authentic presentation of Art-Yarning and my own interpretations of these.

In conclusion, Art-Yarning enhanced the self-awareness of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals who exist in the complex web of the Cultural Interface, and create spaces from which variations of the Relational enacted and transcend art-making to embodied experiences. For the non-Indigenous participants, the method crystallised pathways of adaptation to various Indigenous ways of KnowingBeing-Doing. The method unsettled our settler identities in both bearable and productive ways and promoted healthy cross-cultural communication. Art-Yarnings have revealed a common thread I have identified as the Messy-Whole-Self, which reflects strong, resilient and whole Indigenous identities. This does not dismiss the urgent need for justice or undermine the challenges Indigenous participants face. It does however, illuminate and celebrate the strength, diversity and richness of their identities and counterbalances the deficit-driven portrayal of Indigenous people across governmental, structural and street communications in Australia. Indigenous knowledge systems and people become teachers to learn from rather than about.