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The Arts in Psychotherapy 39 (2012) 192– 200

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

The Arts in Psychotherapy

ourney women: Art therapy in a decolonizing framework of practice

ucy Lu, M.A.a,∗, Felice Yuen, Ph.D.b

Minwaashin Lodge – Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre, Ottawa, ON, CanadaDepartment of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

r t i c l e i n f o

eywords:rt therapyboriginal womenecolonizationrts-based researchody-maprt exhibition

a b s t r a c t

This paper presents the integration of art therapy in a decolonizing framework of practice used in a projectcalled “Journey Women”. This framework of practice seeks to recognize and deconstruct the impacts ofcolonization and discrimination of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples and to empower and informpeople in their healing journey. “Journey Women” was an art exhibit of large-scale “body-map” imagesdepicting the healing experiences of eight Aboriginal women, created in a three-day arts-based workshop.The collaborative research project between Minwaashin Lodge and Concordia University aimed to gainan understanding of the conditions that contribute or challenge Aboriginal women in their process of

healing from violence and the impacts of violence. This paper describes the process of creating body-mapsthat integrated an art therapy framework with traditional Aboriginal ceremonies of prayer, smudging,drumming, and singing as well as movement and grounding activities, poetry, and art creation. In thisarticle, we discuss how a public exhibit of body-maps acted as a powerful medium of empowerment, aforum for women to be witnessed by the community, and a means for Aboriginal women to act as theirown agents of social change and social justice.

© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

inding the opening

The initial seed for the “Journey Women: Aboriginal Women’sealing Experiences project began when Felice approached me1 toreate a research collaboration between Concordia University andinwaashin Lodge. I was reluctant to be the organizational gatekeeper

n this relationship because, like Felice, I was non-Aboriginal and ofhinese-Canadian origin. On the other hand, we both had had muchxposure throughout our lives to native culture, which inspired ourommitment to working with and supporting the Aboriginal commu-ity. Felice’s doctoral research brought her to work with Aboriginalomen in the Native Sisterhood in the Canadian Federal prison sys-

em (Yuen & Pedlar, 2009). I began working at Minwaashin Lodge little less than a year prior to beginning the project, offering art

herapy groups at the shelter for Aboriginal women and children flee-ng abuse and participating in different programs at Minwaashin.

y role as an art therapist integrating art therapy into already

∗ Corresponding author at: Minwaashin Lodge – Aboriginal Women’s Supportentre, 424 Catherine St. 2nd Floor, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1R 5T8.el.: +1 613 741 5590x231.

E-mail addresses: llu@minlodge.com (L. Lu), fyuen@alcor.concordia.ca (F. Yuen).1 Although this is a co-authored piece between Felice Yuen and Lucy Lu, for sim-

licity and to facilitate self-reflexivity on the art therapy process, the italicizedeflection segments are written in the first person by Lucy Lu. They are meant to acts descriptive pieces to highlight the subjective experience of the research process.

197-4556/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.aip.2011.12.007

existing art practices at Minwaashin was in its beginning phase.Despite this commitment and understanding of the community, I feltan underlying resistance to take part in the research. How could I, asa non-Aboriginal person be a part of a research regarding Aborigi-nal women’s healing experiences? How could we conduct arts-basedresearch with Aboriginal women in a way that would not reassertneo-colonial practices of research? How could we create a projectthat would fit within the decolonizing framework of the organiza-tion?

Minwaashin Lodge, Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre, isfounded on a feminist and decolonizing framework that supportswomen and children impacted by abusive relationships in order tobring balance to the general Aboriginal community. A decoloniz-ing framework of practice seeks to recognize and deconstruct theimpact of colonization and discrimination of First Nations, Inuit,and Métis people and to empower them to be informed agents oftheir own lives and healing journey (Chansonneuve, 2010). Womenare offered an understanding of the cycle of violence to help themunderstand their situation in an abusive relationship, which is con-textualized within intergenerational trauma due to a history ofresidential schools, colonization, and discrimination toward Abo-riginal people in Canada (Wesley-Equimaux & Smolewski, 2004).

Minwaashin Lodge services include a women and children’s shelter,transitional support, sex worker support, street outreach, coun-seling and family support team, art therapy, traditional supportthrough elder guidance, and cultural, employment, and youth

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L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in P

rograms.2 As a whole, the agency also takes part in advocacyctivities around violence against women and Aboriginal women’sights. Minwaashin Lodge is located in Ottawa, in Algonquin terri-ory, yet mainly serves a diversity of urban First Nations, Inuit, and

étis people who come from various parts of Canada and representifferent nations.

The integration of formal art therapy programming at Min-aashin Lodge began as an ongoing collaborative and consultativerocess with colleagues as well as clients. The creative arts are

ntegrated in the vast majority of Aboriginal healing models andervices across Canada and incorporate a variety of arts includ-ng visual art, beading and sewing, singing, drumming, dancing,heatre, writing, and storytelling (Archibald & Dewar, 2010). Asrchibald and Dewar have discovered in their interviews with ther-pists, healers, and counselors in over 104 healing programs acrossanada, the creative arts are seen as a part of a larger holistic modelf healing that connects people to culture, spirituality, and identity.ike many counselors who walk between mainstream psychologi-al practices and Aboriginal traditional practices (e.g., Oulanova &oodley, 2010), Lucy’s attempts to integrate art therapy within the

xisting practices of this agency are not formulaic or rigidly appliedut include an ongoing dialog with the clients and communityhere she works. The art therapy groups and programs at Min-aashin may integrate smudging and medicine wheel teachings

mongst opening exercises of scribble drawings and exploration ofaint, while materials like beads, jewelry-making supplies, leather,nd feathers are found alongside Western materials like paints,astels, and clay. Notably, by offering a range of modes of expres-ion, the client can choose how they wish to express themselves.ocoy (2007) emphasizes that art therapy can be used as a tool

or social change when it can be flexible, self-critical, and openo integrating the host community’s culture, ideals, structure, andoncepts. Integrating art therapy into Minwaashin Lodge’s decolo-izing framework and cultural context is an ongoing process that

nvolves learning, discussions, and adaptations that depart fromhe “traditional” therapeutic frame of the private therapy sessiono encompass community based art therapy.

Embarking on this research project required a similar processf consultation with colleagues, clients, and community members.or example, as a part of our discussions about how to undertakehis research, we discussed ways in which the women taking part inhe research could have agency over the telling of their story whilee, as the researcher and art therapist, created a safe container

or these stories. We were very conscious of the fact that we wereon-Aboriginal women facilitating this process, so throughout ouriscussions with colleagues, clients, and community members wetayed committed to creating a space for dialog and “deep listening”i.e., listening without judgment or imposing our own beliefs orultural perspectives).

According to Aboriginal scholar Alfred (2005):

If non-indigenous readers are capable of listening, they willlearn from. . .shared words [between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples], and they will discover that while we areenvisioning a new relationship. . .we are at the same time offer-ing a decolonized alternative to the Settler society by invitingthem to share our vision of respect and peaceful coexistence. (p.35)

Indigenous scholars propose that subverting colonial models ofesearch entails creating research that supports indigenous self-etermination, decolonization, and social justice and that various

2 Minwaashin Lodge Life Cycle Service Model is a holistic service model to stopiolence against women and girls by providing programs for children, youth, adults,eniors and elders within an aboriginal framework of healing (see Appendix A).

herapy 39 (2012) 192– 200 193

models can be used to emphasize benefits to the community ratherthan looking from a positivist framework of research that seeks outwhat is dysfunctional (Smith, 1999). Wilson (2008) describes howresearch is ceremony and a form of connection between people andcosmos:

The purpose of any ceremony is to build stronger relation-ships or bridge the distance between aspects of our cosmos andourselves. The research that we do as Indigenous people is a cer-emony that allows us a raised level of consciousness and insightinto our world. Let us go forward together with open minds andgood hearts as we further take part in this ceremony. (p. 11)

As art is integral to many Aboriginal healing practices, it seemsbefitting that creating an art image as a part of research canalso act as the bridge between the self and the collective (Hocoy,2007), indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives, art therapyand research, ceremony and activism.

Whereas we both, Lucy and Felice, originally saw our rolesas facilitators of the project in their positions of art therapistand researcher, respectively, over time and with the teachings ofan Aboriginal colleague, we realized that we were in fact circle-keepers, supporting people as well as the relationships within thecircle (C. Gaudet, personal communication, December 2010). Inkeeping with the analogy of the circle, we have depicted the evo-lution and growth of the circle as we discuss the integration of arttherapy in a decolonizing framework. As the circle evolved over thecourse of the workshops, the women became empowered beyondthe identity of participants and embraced the identity of artists.Thus, we use this term to identify them throughout the remainderof this paper.

This paper will focus on the process of creating and exhibit-ing the body-map images, while the outcomes of the analysis ofthe research interviews will be presented in future publications. Inwhat follows, we describe how we came to adopt body-mappingas the art making process and what we did to ensure that it fitwithin an Aboriginal perspective. We then inform the reader howthe artists were recruited, how the circle was opened through tradi-tional ceremony, how a creative space was made possible throughteachings of the medicine wheel, and how this space eventuallygrew through the empowerment of its members and the inclu-sion of others that were touched and inspired. We conclude witha discussion of how the initial circle has closed yet continues tolive through the creation of another. It is through this ripple effect,which was started by an art project that was originally intended toexplore the process of healing, that we ultimately contributed tosocial action and social justice for and by Aboriginal women.

Body-mapping, art therapy, and ceremony

Finding a process that would meet all the intersecting needsrequired a mixture of coincidence, consultation, reflection, andcreative adaption. The body-mapping process was offered as aframework for the women to revisit and record their healing expe-riences through images, writing, and reflection. This body-mappingprocess was adapted from Solomon’s (2007) work “‘Living withX’—a Body Mapping Journey in the time of HIV and AIDS,” whichwas initially used with various groups of men and women in EastAfrica and Southern Africa and inspired other projects like the“Men’s Body Mapping project” (Men’s Body Mapping Project Team,2010) in Toronto, Canada. These body-mapping projects were usedas tools to help people express their life stories and as vehicles

for advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS. Participants in theseprojects created large-scale images with outlines of themselves,along with outlines of their support person in their lives; theyfilled their images with various aspects of their experience living

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all the women respected the sacredness of the ceremony. Theopening circle acted as a ritual of grounding and connecting to

94 L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in P

ith HIV/AIDS, from the physical effects to the psychological andocial impacts of the illness. As well, people who used this pro-ess depicted the ways in which they gained strength to continueo live and envision their lives in the future. The title “Living with” was a play on words, expanding the notion that people livingith HIV/AIDS, had other identities besides living with a virus;

Living with X” could also mean living with “love,” “courage,” “aarticular person,” or many other things (Solomon, p. 2). Simi-

arly, the body-mapping process for our project was used withboriginal women to map out their journey toward healing and

dentifying with positive and affirming aspects of themselves andheir culture in place of pain, hurt, abuse, violence, and culturalssimilation.

Adapting the body-mapping process and workshop to reflectn Aboriginal cultural context came from discussions with col-eagues. In the original planning of the workshops, we incorporatedn opening ceremony each day with our resident elder; however,. Compton (personal communication, September 2010), Min-

aashin’s Cultural Program Manager, suggested that the ceremonyould be led by the women themselves, which would be a pro-ess of empowerment for them. Similarly, the mapping of the lifeourney was adapted from a linear viewpoint (Solomon, 2007) to aircular life-cycle based on the Medicine Wheel teachings to fit anboriginal life perspective (I. Compton, personal communication;ational Native Association of Treatment Directors, 1991). Thus,

nstead of women documenting their healing journey as a linearhronology of events, they created their life story in a circular for-at that reflected Aboriginal teachings about the different aspects

f life. Since the body is the site for many traumas, grounding thexperience in the body through the body-map allowed the artists toccess experiences from the physical, mental, emotional, and spiri-ual areas of their lives, as reflected in the medicine wheel teachingsArchibald & Dewar, 2010).

The three-day arts-based workshops took place over 2 week-nds with a week-long art exhibit following the final sessionf the workshop. The workshops included aspects of traditionaleremony, movement and grounding activities, poetry, and reflec-ion processes along with the art creation of the body-map. Thertists were guided to create their large-scale body-map by creat-ng images inside and around their body outlines that documentedheir healing journey using paint, drawing materials, and collage.o further encourage empowerment, the final body-maps wereisplayed at a local commercial gallery. The exhibition includedot only a standard opening reception, but also a day long cele-ration and ceremony coordinated with the cultural program atinwaashin and supported by the entire staff at the Lodge.

athering the circle

Gathering the group of women to take part in the researchroject was a process of relationship building, which is the mainpproach of developing trust with women at Minwaashin. Somef the women who took part in the research project Lucy hadnown from her previous art therapy – creative groups, while oth-rs were referred to her from other programs in the agency. Allhe women in the project were currently accessing services or pro-rams, or had in the past, and thus they were quite familiar withinwaashin’s services. The group of eight women who participated

n the project identified as First Nations, Métis (descendents of par-nts with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal heritage), Inuit, or being

part of the community because their children shared Aborigi-al heritage. Before beginning the project, Lucy spoke with eachoman, some on several occasions, to talk about what the projectould entail and to ensure that each woman had some kind of

ngoing support outside of the project.

herapy 39 (2012) 192– 200

Opening the circle

We wait until everyone arrives to open the circle. Eleven chairs areplaced in a circle in the main lodge, with a small round table set in themiddle. The circle comprises eight artists, Amy, Xochitl, Nikkutai, Bape-Ande-Kwe, Lisa, Raven, Sophia and Roberta, joined by me, Lucy (the arttherapist), Felice (the researcher), and Jessica (the crisis counselor).There is a candle in the center to act as our sacred fire, stones placedall around it, with a large sea shell as a smudge bowl and a birch barkcontainer filled with dried sage leaves for smudging. I ask if someonewould like to open the circle by smudging those who want it. Onewoman volunteers to light the smudge and goes to each woman withthe bowl in hand with waves of silver sage smoke spiraling in the air.Each woman who decides to smudge has her own way of bringingthe smudge smoke over her body just as each has learned differentteachings regarding this process. Some teachings are that it is a processof opening our hearts to what is to come in the ceremony and to cleanseus so that we can receive good things from our senses.

The woman bearing the smudge bowl leads us in a prayer as wehold hands in a circle. She wishes us well on beginning our body-mapping journey to give us strength to tell our stories. The womenwho have brought their drums lead us in a song; some women knowit well, while others hum or follow along. We laugh together whenthere is a pause of uncertainty and then continue singing. A womansays, “There are no elders here to tell us what the right protocol is,” sothe women go with what feels right in their hearts. They support eachother and share the process of the ceremony. As they claim their ownstories through the body-mapping, the women also empower them-selves to claim their cultural traditions that may or may not alwaysfeel familiar due to variety of reasons that have kept them away fromtheir native traditions—mixed family backgrounds, impact of residen-tial schools, history of living in foster care. For many it is a journey ofreclamation.

Throughout the workshop, the artists were invited to participateto the extent they felt comfortable, which meant they decided howmuch they would reveal about themselves in the ceremony, shar-ing circle, art process, and discussions. Felice conducted individualinterviews with each of the women throughout their creation pro-cess and always tried to maintain a respectful presence when theydiscussed their work.3

There was a lot of uncertainty and questions from the womenabout the process and how they could formulate their entire lifestory in an image while also trying to stay grounded as memoriescame to the surface. Several weeks before the workshop, on a tripto the Lower St. Laurence, Lucy collected stones from the opening ofthe St. Laurence River where the fresh water of the river meets thesalt water of the ocean. On the first day of the workshop, as a toolto introduce themselves to each other and as a grounding object,Lucy invited the women to select a stone that best representedthem. She offered them these stones as symbols of containmentand transformation: the stones held the stories of the earth overhundreds of years, filled with water from the ocean’s salty tears aswell as fresh water from the river that moves and feeds the earth.

At the beginning of each workshop day, the women were invitedto lead the opening ceremony of smudging, prayer, drumming,and singing so that they would feel empowered by taking thelead on their own traditional practices. Although some womenwere familiar with these practices, others may not have beenexposed to them as part of upbringing or culture; nevertheless,

3 Data collected from these interviews will be discussed in future articles.

sychotherapy 39 (2012) 192– 200 195

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Fig. 1. Amy’s body-map.

L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in P

ach other in order to gather strength to embark on the creativerocess.

olding the circle as a creative space

The main lodge or main space is where most large group activitiesake place at Minwaashin. At the center of the room is a wall hangingf our logo, an Aboriginal woman with arms spread out as the rootsf the earth, a drum at her heart center, and another bright circle aser spirit. There are healing flags, cloths tied in a small bundle at theop filled with medicine—tobacco, sage, cedar and sweetgrass—thatre pinned to the walls indicating the four directions: East (Yellow),outh (Red), West (Black), and North (White). Adjacent to the mainpace are doorways to offices, the kitchen, the children’s playroom,nd the youth room, which is also used as studio space. By day 3 ofhe workshop, these familiar rooms have been transformed into stu-io space with large sheets of primed canvas measuring 2.5 m (8 feet)

n height by 1.5 m (5 feet) in width positioned throughout the space.ome are pinned to the wall, one is spread across several tables, the restf the canvases are in different areas on the floor spread throughouthe rooms. Each woman has her area set up with paints, paint trays,rushes, collage images, various items like feathers and dried flowerso be glued onto her body-map. Some women have created makeshiftltars where they place items such as a stone from our opening circle,revious artwork, a personal drum, a gifted dress, and images of peo-le and places that inspire their process. While the women work, therere various selections of music playing in the background—drumming,elaxation music, and sometimes the buzz of the local pop radio sta-ion. Some women have brought their own music devices to plug intoheir personal create space. There is a real sense of an artist’s studiohere creativity and concentration is palatable as the artists com-lete their images of healing and prepare them for presentation at thexhibit.

To start the process of the body-maps, a movement activ-ty was introduced to help the artists get comfortable with eachther and position their bodies for the body-map tracing. Inairs, women helped trace each other’s body outlines in the posehat depicted how they see themselves today. Then they createdn outline of another image that would represent their supportetwork—people, agencies, events, spiritual supports, and any-hing that has given them strength. They used colors, textures,ords, and symbols to fill in their body images with their pain

nd healing and their support images with ways in which theyave felt supported. The outlines of themselves and their sup-ort images were placed in communication with each other andhowed how each woman viewed her relationship to her supportetworks. Some women showed the two types of images walkingr dancing side-by-side (Figs. 1–3) and some, in a warm embraceFigs. 4 and 5). One woman was swinging from her support depicteds a tree with the branch of the swing labelled “Minwaashin”Fig. 6); another woman was able to stand with arms and legsutstretched (Fig. 7). Yet another woman showed herself able totand, because of her sacrifices from her support, represented as aurtle (Fig. 8). Although most women decided to depict their sup-ort symbolically rather than literally with names of individuals

n English, some women acknowledged them in culturally rele-ant symbols. For example, Amy described her support as dancinglongside her in traditional native pow-wow dance with symbolshat represented her support person’s clan (see Fig. 1), and Nikku-ai named her support in Inuktitut syllabics, the Inuit languagesee Fig. 2).

Guided through visualization, each woman marked her points

f power on her body-map to provide a visual marker of strengths she filled in her body outline with images of pain and healing.his marker of strength was used to help minimize the focus onhat is dysfunctional and, in accordance with Wilson (2008), to

connect each woman to the collective strength of the group and herculture.

As the workshops progressed, we adapted the instructions as wewent along in order to allow the artists to work at their own pace.Depicting the life journey was the most difficult and challengingpart of the body-mapping process for the women as it brought upmemories from the past; however, the artwork played a strong rolein providing containment for the difficult feelings. Using the tradi-tional native life-cycle based on the medicine wheel, the artistsmapped out their origins or childhood, starting in the top right cor-ner (the East) and moving clockwise, followed by the challengesthey have overcome in their life in their young adulthood, wherethey are now as adults, and where they see themselves going aselders. Common threads for all the women were the origins of theirpast filled with pain and hurt due to violence and abuse felt per-sonally and within their communities. Bloody hands showing thelocation of pain, bloody feet showing the journey of the struggle,a baby born from the earth, anger shooting out like a monster,a looming coiled snake, a mask hiding feelings of shame, and atiny child in the shadow of two parents are some of the imagesthat depicted the diversity of these painful feelings from the past.

Xochitl depicted hands in bondage and the impact of coloniza-tion of her Mayan ancestors (Fig. 7), while words from Roberta’scollage images stated “violence hurts us all” and “no more stolen

196 L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in Psychotherapy 39 (2012) 192– 200

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isters”4 (Fig. 5) communicated the collective trauma of Aboriginaleople.

As women created images of their present day and where theyould like to go, the images revealed a variety of expressions ofope and transformation: a lone tree in the sunrise coming from thearkness, a colorful image of a strong Aboriginal woman, a wind-

ng path with new buds of growth, a drum amongst the mists ofpiraling silver sage smoke, an image of a wise elder, balance rep-esented by the medicine wheel, an eagle soaring in the air, and aolorful mix of paint showing the beauty of the unknown that lieshead. Women were encouraged to choose how to depict their self-ortraits and to add words or a personal slogan that gives meaningo their journey. There were powerful words that stood out fromhe images, such as “my voice,” “I love myself,” “my hope,” “bruiseseal after you see yellow,” “acceptance,” and “love.”

At the end of each day, we held a sharing circle where eachoman was offered the chance to share their creative process.

ometimes a talking stone was used, and each woman was given aurn to speak if they wished as the stone was passed around. Some

omen were comfortable sharing while the silence of others was

espected as they held the talking stone. On the last day, we did formal walk around so that everyone could view each image.

4 “Stolen Sisters” refers to the missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canadaighlighted in the Sisters in Spirit Campaign by the Native Women’s Association ofanada (2010).

Fig. 3. Raven’s body-map.

Artists were invited to share and explain their body-maps, andagain, silences were respected. Following Betensky’s (1995) phe-nomenological approach to viewing the art image, Lucy invited theother artists to answer the question, “What do you see?” in order toencourage a deep looking and witnessing of the image and the artistwho created the image. This kind of seeing is looking with the eyesof the active witness (Jones, 2007) with presence and suspendedjudgment (Learmouth, 1994) that supports and acknowledges theartist and her story. Lucy encouraged the women to name and todescribe parts of the body-maps, so as to reflect back to the artiststhat their stories were being seen and heard and to offer insightsthat may not yet have been revealed. At the end of the viewing, theartists filled out a short form, following Solomon’s (2007) instruc-tions, describing the qualities they see each person living with. Theitalicized words in the examples below are the words of the artistsas they reflected upon each other’s body maps:

“When I see Roberta’s body map and I hear her story, I see aperson living with transformation and hope.”

“When I see Bape-Ande-Kwe’s body map and I hear her story, Isee a person living with confidence and freedom.”

“When I see Raven’s body map and I hear her story, I see a personliving with earthiness and magic.”

“When I see Xochitl’s body map and I hear her story, I see aperson living with a strong history and a vibrant strong spirit.”

L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in Psychotherapy 39 (2012) 192– 200 197

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expression for social justice. Bape-Ande-Kwe said the art exhibit

Fig. 4. Sophia’s body-map.

idening the circle: art exhibit and celebration

The art exhibit takes place in a commercial gallery called the Orangert Gallery, located in the art district in Ottawa. It is November andhe event is advertised in local newspapers, TV news, radio shows, andommunity web postings to support Women Abuse Awareness Month.he celebration takes place in the larger gallery space while the body-aps are displayed in a smaller, more intimate room. There is food

pread out for the feast, and chairs are set up in semi-circles for theelebration. When I enter the gallery space, the canvases are set offhe ground by a foot, and the images seem larger than life; I feel ashough I am surrounded by a circle of colorful women. On the day ofhe celebration, all the women are invited to attend and share aboutheir artwork in the artist talk. On the last day of the workshops, onlyhree women had been willing to participate in the artist talk. It hadeen an emotionally draining experience, and although the womenere proud of their artwork, they weren’t too sure if they wanted to

xpose themselves further.At the opening ceremony, a few women trickle in amongst the

uests. One woman who never spoke in the group discussions,pproaches me and asks if she can drum with the women and shareer story. Grandmother Irene Lindsey says the opening prayer, andlaine Kicknosway, Family Program Manager and traditional singer,hares a song with the women. By this time six out of the eight women

ave shown up for the celebration. There is strength in numbers, andll of the six women attending decide to go up together to share aboutheir experience. Later, they courageously share the stories of their

Fig. 5. Roberta’s body-map.

body-maps in front of all the attendees at the exhibit. There is a sense ofthe circle expanding from the small group of artists who created imagesof their healing journeys to include the women and men listening andwitnessing their stories.

At every step of the process, the women were encouragedto share at the level they felt comfortable, and they were fre-quently reminded that they could decide whether they wantedto exhibit their art piece, with their names or anonymously, inorder to protect their confidentiality. As already indicated, thewomen were also invited to talk about their body-maps. Becausemost of the women were initially reluctant to publically talk abouttheir maps, it took courage and support from all the womentogether to accept the invitation to share their stories. Each ofthe six artists attending then explained her body-map processand the meaning of her images. One woman felt the strengthof her voice in speaking out her story and shared a song usingher drum. The audience was asked to take part in the reflect-ing exercise of “What do you see?” that the women did in theworkshops. Each of the women who shared felt validated andwitnessed by the viewers who were asked to share what theysaw in the body-maps. Even the images for the two womenwho did not attend the celebration were witnessed by the view-ers.

For some women, the exhibit gave a forum to practice their own

gave her the opportunity to finally call herself an “art activist”because she shared her artwork of painted bones, which she cre-ated as a part of her own healing journey. She installed her painted

198 L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in Psychotherapy 39 (2012) 192– 200

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ones piece, shaped to spell “Alive” on a dress gifted to her thatelonged to activist Gladys Radek (Fig. 9), who marched in thisress on her “Walk 4 Justice 2008′′ campaign to raise awarenessbout the disproportionate number of the missing and murderedboriginal women and children (Radek, 2010). In an interview with

ocal news about the exhibit, Bape-Ande-Kwe stated, “For me theignificance is the ability to be vocal and be open with my journeynd the ability to express it to other people. So that when they thinkbout Aboriginal and healing and so much hurt in our history, theyan also look and see beauty” (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,010).

One guest, who attended the reception, shared how shexpected to see “Aboriginal art” images that she would normally seen traditional art forms, but instead what she saw was “Aboriginaleelings” (personal communication, November, 2010). Regardlessf the specific difficulties and traumas each woman experienced,ollectively the images spoke to and gave voice to shared Abo-iginal feelings. These feelings resonate from a shared history ofolonization and from the intergenerational violence that afflictsboriginal communities due to this source of hurt and injustice.he exhibit offered a space for a decolonizing process to occurhere the artists could externalize their inner pain and have it wit-essed by the community as a collective hurt embedded in colonialistory.

In sum, the “Journey Women” exhibit provided the forum toring each individual’s pain and strength through her body-mapnd rendered them visible on multiple levels. The image contained

Fig. 7. Xochitl’s body-map.

these feelings and acted as the mediator between personal and col-lective suffering (Hocoy, 2007) while also celebrating survival andthe capacity for Aboriginal people to continue to create, thrive, andbe resilient in the face of societal injustice (Smith, 1999). Attentionto the artwork and an active witnessing of the individual (Jones,2007) provided the potential for a deep understanding of the artist’sexperience so that meaning was created from the act of honoringher journey (Learmouth, 1994). Initially, the artist was her own wit-ness, which was followed by the therapist, researcher, and the otherartists involved in the project also giving witness. Eventually, thecircle widened to include the public viewers and other interestedAboriginal communities; it will continue to widen as readers learnabout this work. The art creation and subsequent exhibition initi-ated a building of circles of connection, and even you as a readerbecome a part of these circles.

Closing the circle and opening up others

Upon the completion of the exhibit, there was a sense of one cir-cle closing, yet other ones continuing out like ripples when a stonegets thrown into a pond. Although the project had officially foundits closure with the exhibit, there continues to be ongoing inter-est from the participants, colleagues, and community members in

sharing the process and recreating the body-mapping project withadditional groups. As other art therapists who use art as a form ofsocial action have discovered, information sharing is social action

L. Lu, F. Yuen / The Arts in Psychot

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Fig. 8. Lisa’s body-map.

O’Rourke, 2007) consistent with decolonizing forms of researchSmith, 1999).

The next phase of this project will include analysis of the inter-iews of the participants, which we hope to publish in a futurerticle. If we expand the project to other interested communi-

ies, it might be possible to have the recent participants facilitatehe body-mapping process and become circle-keepers themselves.his, too, could provide material for publication.

ig. 9. Art exhibit installation – Gladys Radek’s dress adorned with Bape-Ande-Kwe’sones.

herapy 39 (2012) 192– 200 199

Through individual discussions and a group debriefing, most ofthe artists shared how the experience left them feeling empow-ered, more creative in their lives, and able to see the future aheadbecause they created an image of it. Alongside these feelings, somewomen shared how the process and speaking at the exhibit leftthem at times feeling “raw,” “shaky,” “vulnerable,” and “destabi-lized.” Some interpreted the strength to speak coming from thecollective strength of the group, while others felt there was anunconscious pressure that came from the group. This indicates thatalthough art can be used as a process of healing and social action,there are also risks when it comes to opening up wounds and goingbeyond one’s comfort zone. In our group meetings, we allowed thespace for these multiple feelings to be expressed, ensuring that eachwoman had some form of ongoing support. Being a part of a holis-tic healing center, such as Minwaashin Lodge ensures the safety ofparticipants in a project such as ours and also highlights the neces-sity of an ongoing community support network when using art asa form of social action.

What this article highlights is that when art is created withinan art therapy decolonizing framework, social action is a continu-ing activity and not limited to the confines of a particular projector research study. Circle-keeping is an ongoing process, and it isthe responsibility of the circle-keeper to continue holding the peo-ple within the circle, moving them along while also listening totheir needs (C. Gaudet, personal communication, December 2010).The “Journey Women” project demonstrates the importance of thecircle, ceremony, the art image, and witnessing to contain all thevariety of feelings that arise from such an experience. This projectintended to investigate the healing journey while in the processadding another layer of healing and empowerment to the womenwho participated and to the community members who took partin the witnessing.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, inthe online version, at doi:10.1016/j.aip.2011.12.007.

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