Community arts as public pedagogy: disruptions into public memory through Aboriginal counter-storytelling

Abstract

Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) is a form of public pedagogy that seeks to intervene into the reproduction of meaning in public spaces. In this article, we explore the Bush Babies and Elders portrait project that sought to contribute to the empowerment of Aboriginal participants through counter-storytelling. Drawing on interview and survey data collected as part of a larger qualitative study, we examine Aboriginal participant's reflections on their participation and the meanings of the project. Anchored in a critical interpretive approach, thematic analysis of data resulted in the construction of two themes, cultural continuity and recognition and acknowledgement. These themes reflect the everyday politics of survival within a longer history of oppression and ongoing misrecognition. We discuss this project as an example of public pedagogy that expands spaces and resources for contesting exclusionary narratives that inform public memory, understood as a subject of debate, dialogue and critical engagement. As a form of counter-storytelling, CACD thus creates possibilities for transforming social identities, subjectivities and relationships in local and national contexts.

Keywords:

• storytelling
• community arts and cultural development
• public pedagogy
• public memory
• Indigenous
• identities
• coloniality

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank CAN WA staff, Michelle White, Marcelle Riley, Monica Kane and Geri Hayden for their support in undertaking this research, and the participants who generously shared their time, insights and experiences of the Bush Babies and Elders portrait project. The authors would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of this paper.

Notes on contributors

Amy Quayle is a Ph.D. candidate in community psychology. Her research explores the dynamics of oppression and privilege and the potentially transformative role of community arts and cultural development in fostering identities and belonging and promoting intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and connection.

Christopher Sonn lectures in areas of community, cultural and liberation psychology and qualitative social research methods at Victoria University. His research is in the area of sense of community, social identity, immigration, and intergroup relations. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in the related fields of critical, community and liberation psychology on topics of migration, race and racism, whiteness studies, and creative and critical approaches to individual and community change.

Pilar Kasat is the managing director of CAN WA, the peak body for community arts and cultural development in WA. Pilar has a Masters (by research) in Sustainability and Social Change, is a Fellow of Leadership WA and serves on the board of The Chamber of Arts and Culture WA, the state representative arts body. Pilar has presented widely at conferences and critical discussions on themes such as arts and health, multiculturalism, cultural identity and global sustainability.

Notes

1. Community cultural development, community arts and community-based arts are often used interchangeably in the literature. In this article, we use Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD); CAN WA and the Australia Council for the Arts use this more encompassing term.

2. Noongar people are Aboriginal people who live in the southeast corner of Western Australia. Their country extends from semi-arid Wheatbelt land in the north, down to coastal Esperance, and they are one of the largest Indigenous groups in Australia.

3. Sadly, Hazel Winmar passed away shortly after celebrating her 100th birthday and the exhibition in Perth. Her family members were insistent that she remains a part of the exhibition because they want her to be recognised and acknowledged.

4. Pseudonyms have been used.