Warren Linds

Research as intervention? Exploring the health and well-being of children and youth facing global adversity through participatory visual methods

ABSTRACT Global health research typically relies on the translation of knowledge (from health professionals to the community) and the dissemination of knowledge (from research results to the wider public). However, Greenhalgh and Wieringa [2011. Is it time to drop the ‘knowledge translation’ metaphor? A critical literature review. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 104(12), 501–509. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2011.110285] suggest ‘that while “translation” is a widely used metaphor in medicine, it constrains how we conceptualize and study the link between knowledge and practice’ (p. 501). Often the knowledge garnered from such research projects comes from health professionals rather than reflecting the lived experiences of people and communities. Likewise, there has been a gap in ‘translating’ and ‘disseminating’ the results of participatory action research projects to policymakers and medical practitioners. This paper will look at how using participatory visual methodologies in global health research with children and youth facing global adversity incorporates the multiple functions of their lived realities so that research becomes a means of intervention. Drawing from a literature review of participatory visual methods as media, content and processes of global health research, this paper raises practical, theoretical, and ethical questions that arise from research as intervention. The paper concludes by exploring what lessons emerge when participatory visual methodologies are integrated into global health research with children and youth facing global adversity.

Layering Theatre's Potential for Change: Drama, Education, and Community in Aboriginal Health Research

WARREN LINDS, HEATHER RITENBURG, LINDA GOULET, JO-ANN EPISKENEW, KAREN SCHMIDT , NUNO RIBEIRO, and ALLISON WHITEMAN show how drama is helping Aboriginal youth overcome historical and ongoing colonization to reclaim their place and explore new pathways forward.

Embodying decolonization: Methodologies and indigenization

This article explores the role of the body in decolonizing and Indigenous methodologies through the experiences and perspectives of four researchers and research teams living and working in different contexts in Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. A methodological overview of these approaches is provided and stories are shared of working with theatre with Indigenous youth; of a pedagogy which affirms the centrality of the body in Indigenous teaching and learning; and an autoethnographic reflection on decolonization in relation to Māori birthing practice or traditions. The threads that are common to all these narratives are the commitment to centring the body in the process of decolonization and indigenization, and an affirmation of bodily wisdom and experience as a critical component of Indigenous methodologies.

Performing responsibility: ethical 'know-how' through drama facilitation

I explore, and reflect on, the everyday ethical practices of drama facilitation. Rather than being a set of principles I apply, ethics emerge as I respond to situations that arise in a drama workshop. Their significance calls for understanding workshop facilitation as a space of containment. This offers the possibility of transforming personal and social being through the tensions and possibilities of interactive activities and conversations. To illustrate, I reflect upon an experience in a high school where an exploration of racism led to my learning from (and through) facilitation practice. Using a hermeneutic process of interpretation and interrogation that draws on the work of German philosopher Hans‐Georg Gadamer, I explore how I moved beyond ethics to ethical know‐how.

Acting Outside the Box

This chapter will critically examine issues emerging from the incorporation of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) in an antiracism program in schools. We will explore an adaptation of Theatre of the Oppressed that not only de-normalizes acts of discrimination but also provides a space to develop an “as if” world, where antiracism is practiced and transformation is possible.

Living the experience of learning: embodied reflexivity as pedagogical process

As theatre practitioners we are always doing, acting, speaking and moving. Our world is one of lived experience, where we physically embody moments of knowledge creation and transformation. Through these interactions and transactions of learning, we reflect and ‘reflex’ our understanding of experiences. But how might we develop an approach to pedagogy that recognizes the primacy of relationships, enabling a sharing of an embodied and reflexive approach about our pedagogical practices? How might we experience these relationships in a way that enables learning processes to occur for ourselves and those we teach? These are questions we explore in this article, using our experiences and research. We identify how principles based on the Indigenous concept of 4Rs (relevance, responsibility, respect and reciprocity) that underpin embodied reflexivity could open up the possibility for new ways of knowing and understanding. We do this through presenting two research projects, one in Canada on using theatre games to explore well-being with Indigenous youth and one in Scotland on story and re-storying using an approach with educational professionals to develop embodied reflexive practice. Embodied reflexive processes as collective experience become opportunities for complex learning to occur where participants gain potentially transformational insights into practice through their symbiotic interaction with others.

Weechi metuwe mitotan: playing games of presence with Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan, Canada

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of play and how the integration of play in the arts contributes to supporting holistic well-being in Indigenous youth. We specifically focus on ‘Games of Presence’ (Gee, personal communication, August 25, 2015) which are theatre games often categorized as warm-ups, energizers and exercises in applied theatre programmes. We draw on interviews with youth participants in our workshops and adult facilitators who have told us that these games are not just fun – they have a greater significance, in that they build trust, enabling the development of voice, positive relationships and the sharing of power. Play also connects youth to elders and cultural practices; they told us that these connections were also ways to learn about themselves. Our hope is that this article will point to the need for further research on play and youth in different cultural contexts.

Embodied voices: using applied theatre for co-creation with marginalised youth

ABSTRACT In this article, we take a strength-based approach to understand how applied theatre as a vehicle provides opportunities for embodied voices to have a positive influence on the well-being, and attitudes to health, of young people who have been ‘pushed’ to the margins. We begin by explaining the concepts of well-being, embodiment and embodied voices, and applied theatre. Following this we explore an example of a theatre project developed in Canada with Indigenous youth to illustrate how the well-being of those who might be termed ‘marginalised’ in this context, is enhanced through a process of embodied reflexivity using applied theatre approaches. Finally, we discuss challenges with this approach to working with ‘marginalised’ youth, and also present some recommendations for professionals using applied theatre for co-creation with ‘marginalised’ youth for their well-being.We share how our research led us to conclude that a commitment to the arts as a fundamental and core process for developing wellness and wellbeing is necessary. This would mean professionals associated with any programmes or projects generated to explore embodied work with young people need see the arts as a philosophical underpinning, rather than as just an additional activity that can be inserted into any programme.

Generating and sustaining positive spaces: reflections on an Indigenous youth urban arts program

Life in the city for any youth can be challenging without a proper support network. For Indigenous youth in particular, the unique burden of intergenerational trauma due to the residual effects of colonialism (e.g. residential schools and historical outlawing of traditional practices) can contribute to both unhealthy behaviors and a continuation of “culturally unsafe” spaces. As a response to these challenges, this article examines the positive effects that a grassroots film creation and production program in a major urban centre in Saskatchewan, Canada, had on participating Indigenous youth. Community-based researchers from the Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre observed how a culturally safe space created the conditions to enable youth to become creative through the arts in an environment supported by an intergenerational network of Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) kinship relationships called wâhkôtowin. The article also argues that the effectiveness of culturally safe spaces can benefit from recognizing the operation of ethnogenetic processes in contemporary environments.

Like Braiding Sweetgrass: Nurturing Relationships and Alliances in Indigenous Community-based Research

The shifting environment of Indigenous community-based research demands reflexivity because the negotiation and maintenance of relationships are central (Findlay, Ray, & Basualdo, 2014). This paper expands on the importance of social relationships in the Nehinuw (Cree) worldview by reflecting on an ongoing research partnership among a team of Indigenous and Settler researchers from three universities and one Indigenous community agency. The Nehinuw relationships of weechihitowin (supporting and helping each other), weechiyauguneetowin (partnership, collaborative or shared action), otootemitowin (respectful openness and acceptance of others), and weechiseechigemitowin (alliances for common action) (L. Goulet & K. Goulet, 2014) form the theoretical framework for analyzing the challenges and successes that have sustained this collaboration for almost 10 years. This article will enhance understanding of Indigenous community-based research to promote an epistemological shift toward Indigenous modes of inquiry.