Exploring African Youth Cultural Memory and the Australian Cultural Experience

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contributor quotes....

“This chapter describes a research project conducted amongst Black youth of African migrant descent in Western Australia. The project had various components with one being a festival where African Australian young people used the arts to both inquire into their own lives, and share them with others….”

“The African cultural memory youth arts festival (ACMYAF) functioned as both a research inquiry and cultural event in the way that it provided young people with an empowering space for exploring issues relating to their cultural identities both performatively and educatively. The outcomes were informative to both Arts Based Educational Research (ABER) approaches and bicultural socialisation of the African Australian youth. ABER along with an African centered pedagogical approach provided important frameworks for exploring African cultural memory and the Australian cultural experience of the African Australian youth in an educative and informative way.”

Peter Mbago Wakholi, Peter Wright

look for the complete article in the upcoming book, "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change"

Peter Mbago Wakholi, M.Ed. BSc., BEd. is originally from Uganda, Peter migrated to Australia with his family in 1991. Before coming to Australia, he worked as a high school teacher in Uganda, Kenya and Zambia following his graduation from Makerere University in Uganda (1984). Peter currently works with the Education Department in Western Australia as a high school teacher and is pursuing a PhD through the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Murdoch University on “Negotiating Cultural Identity through the Arts”. Peter holds an M.Ed Research from Murdoch University. His master’s research project centred on ‘African Cultural Education: A dialogue with the African Migrant Youth in Western Australia’. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Professional Learning and a B.Ed from Edith Cowan University; and a BSc from Makerere University in Uganda. Peter is the author of “African Cultural Education and the African Youth in Western Australia: Experimenting with the Ujamaa Circle” (Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag, 2008), as well as several refereed and magazine articles in the area of African cultural education. His research interests include migration and cultural identity – in particular the role of African cultural knowledge – and the use of arts-based approaches in strengthening the cultural identities of African youth. In addition, he is also a practising artist and a cultural education facilitator.

Peter Wright Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in Arts Education and Research Methods, and Academic Chair of Research and Postgraduate Studies, School of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. He is an active researcher and works across the arts with a commitment to personal, social and cultural inquiry, development, education and expression. Peter’s research interests include teaching, learning and healing in, through, and with the Arts; Arts-informed approaches to research; Participatory Arts, Drama Education; Applied Theatre; Transformational learning; Teacher development in the Arts, and Playback Theatre. Recently Peter acted as an editor for a special themed issue of Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research on Performative Social Science, a reviewer for Qualitative Inquiry in Education, and the E-journal of UNESCO Observatory: Multi-Disciplinary Research in the Arts. Peter is a member of the International Arts Education Research Network (Australia Council for the Arts/UNESCO), and the UNESCO LEA (Links to Education and Art) International Network of Experts in Arts Education.

Ceramics and Research in Action for Potable Water

This image is from a public pedagogy event on the campus of Texas A&M University in Fall 2007 and features a close up view of clay on the press ready to be formed into a filter. Image TAMU Water Project, photo Cory Arcak.


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contributor quotes....

B. Stephen Carpenter


Ceramics and Research in Action for Potable Water

"Our collaborative projects encompass a variety of research methodologies aimed at examining the social, cultural and environmental aspects of water's role in community health by using ceramic arts education as a means of community change."

"The TAMU Water Project operates out of a strength-based approach by working within existing contexts and with community residents, in order to more fully understand and prioritize next actions. In using the word research as a verb (to research with), rather than as a noun (to do research on), the power dynamic between researcher and researched becomes non-hierarchical. The TAMU Water Project has successfully demonstrated and utilized this approach to participant-led action research, or participatory arts-based research, as a means to lead innovation in ceramic water filter development through interdisciplinary work, successful non-hierarchical working relationships and positive community change." ( Look for the complete article by B. Stephen Carpenter and colleagues in our 2nd book in the CAIP Research Series "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change", Detselig Temeron Press, for release May 2011.)

B. Stephen Carpenter, II is Professor of Art Education at Penn State University. He is author/co-author of numerous scholarly articles that have appeared in journals such as Art Education, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Computers in the Schools, Educational Leadership, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, The Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, The Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, The Journal of Visual Literacy, Studies in Art Education, and Visual Arts Research. He has also authored/co-authored numerous book chapters in art education, visual culture, and curriculum theory. In addition, he is co-author of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School (2006), and co-editor of Curriculum for a Progressive, Provocative, Poetic, and Public Pedagogy (2006). His mixed media installations and performance artworks have been exhibited in regional, national, and international exhibitions. Carpenter was editor of Art Education, the journal of the National Art Education Association (2004-2006) and is co-editor of the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy.

See video clip

"Travelling"... A Photo Based Performative Study of Perceptions and Possibilities, Conversations on Performance, Disability and Health

Advance book previews Contributor Quotes

Pam Patterson

"While not denying that there is some pleasure in what I do, pleasure per se is not my motivation. I am a woman with painful disabilities living with cancer challenges. Grappling with the means to survive, to thrive, to engage, to act is what drives me. "

"I wanted to reinvestigate my own photo-based performative work in order to consider the problematic of maker/viewer perception and the possibilities for social and cultural change. I focused first on Travelling, a web flash exhibition which depicted, through moving stills, my journey across different terrain and through changing seasons from London, UK, to Prince Edward County and Toronto, Ontario, and finally to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Travelling Body Worlds the title of the “performance” from which this exhibition was drawn, was actually a series of conversations on performance, disability, and health that I had with colleagues in Ontario, academics and access theatre professionals in London, and community health advocates in St. John’s."

"I “performed” these conversations while walking barefoot out through snow to the Toronto International Airport, standing on wet North London streets, wading in the Bloomfield Mill Pond, and hiking at the edge of a cliff in Newfoundland. As I was the photographer and the subject was me, the only part of me that I could consistently see to photograph was my feet. So the images used in the web flash exhibit are of my feet in these various settings. What is not visible though is the pain in my limbs and the exhaustion on my face. The conversations, the frustrations, and the elations are also not recorded. But, could Travelling allow for another way of reading performances of pain, suffering, and disability? Not everyone can see performances. Many are site specific and budget limitations can make touring difficult. Videos can be easily distributed and on-line images and sites provide greater access. Can these images recall the performance and/or enrich our understanding? "

Pam Patterson (PhD) is currently Director for the interdisciplinary arts program, WIAprojects and teaches at York University, the Ontario College of Art & Design and the Art Gallery of Ontario. She has, for 25 years, been active in the art and women’s communities. Her research, performance and teaching have focused on embodiment in art practice, the body in art, disability studies, women & gender studies, and feminist art education with publications in journals such as: Studies in Art Education, Resources for Feminist Research, Matriart: A Canadian Feminist Art Journal, FUSE, Fibrearts, Parachute and presentations in conferences such as: the Feminism and Art Conference (Toronto), History of Art Education Symposium (Penn State), and Moving Bodies, Embodying Movement: Exploring the Rhetoric of the Body (State University of New York, Brockport). She has taught for various institutions such as: Sheridan College, George Brown College, Ryerson Polytechnical University and the University of Toronto. As a performance and visual artist she was a founding member of FADO Performance and ARTIFACTS and has exhibited and performed internationally. For 2008/10, she presented a new exhibition/performance work, A Cellu(h)er Resistance: A Body with/out Organs? in a residency for FADO at XPACE Cultural Centre, Toronto, exhibited Travelling a digital exhibition for the Centre for Canadian Contemporary Art (CCCA), Fleishman Gallery and Art Seen (Educational Insights), and performed and exhibited Lighthousekeeping for ACEART INC. & Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art (Winnipeg).

Weaving Communities into Activism and Arts for Change

Advance Book Previews Contributor Quotes....

"This chapter examines the merging of art and activism of The International Fiber Collaborative (IFC) founded by Jennifer Marsh. As a fellow artist and educator, I have participated in and researched multiple collaborative projects with Marsh and the IFC over the past few years.....I draw on portraiture methodology to describe the IFD's unique artistic and social relevance for pedagogy..."

"The individual and communal themes explored in each participant’s contribution to the Gas Station Project, The Tree Project, and the most recent Rocket Project are myriad, yet share an interest in social change. While *The International Fiber Collaborative projects are intentionally open-ended and include many diverse political and ideological responses; the shared message of community and activism proves a common thread. Further, the digital interplay of weblogging, linking, and online commentary allows a range of overlapping and divergent voices to coalesce in ways that transcend traditional, individual art-making and critical discourse. Though the original function of craft objects have utilitarian meanings, (such as a potholder or quilt), the purpose of an individual artist’s panel is often a uniquely personal and/or political expression. In this way, contemporary craft projects like the IFC engender social change while building layers of multifaceted community space and artistic dialogue."

Courtney Lee Weida with Jennifer Marsh

(look for the full article in the upcoming book "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change")

Courtney Lee Weida Ed.D., Ed.M. is Assistant Professor of Art Education Adelphi University, Garden City, N.Y.. She completed her doctorate in Art & Art Education at Columbia University Teachers College. She earned an Ed.M. from Harvard University, specializing in Museum Education. *The International Fiber Collaborative (IFC) was founded in 2007 by artist Jennifer Marsh. It is a non-profit organization that promotes global collaborative public art initiatives, a marriage of art & education. The IFC has accomplished two widely acclaimed projects. The first one being The Gas Station Wrap in 2008 in Syracuse, New York. The submitted artwork for this project came from individuals from 15 countries and 28 states. The Gas Station Wrap was the first of its kind and spurred international attention both through press and participants. The second project was The Interdependence Tree Project in 2009 in Huntsville, Alabama. The International Fiber Collaborative recent project is The Dream Rocket which aims to reach participants from over 100 countries and all 50 states.

See this youtube video of "The Gas Station" project by "The International Fiber Collaborative".

Ethnomethodological Approach and Theatre Shares New Knowledge about Immigrant Experience with the People

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Contributor quotes.....

Carolina Gonzalez-Schlenker MD MPH
with Gloria E. Sarto MD Ph.D.

"The participants of Saber para la Gente (Knowledge for the People) were immigrants experiencing the erosion of traditional roles as part of their acculturation process to the U.S. This erosion evolved without their full awareness yet created an underlying level of uncertainty that when exacerbated by alienating circumstances triggered behaviors that put their health at risk. They were losing their nosotros, the common sense that gave meaning to their face to face daily activities, yet, they continued functioning under those circumstances, leaving untapped capacities to create new meaning. An ethnomethodological approach to inquiry allowed the study to reach the community at this meaning making level. Theatre provided the space-time for critical awareness where participants were able to reinterpret their context and redirect their behaviours. The conscious creation of certainty and trust at the micro-level of face to face interactions could prove to be an important vehicle to prevent health disparities."

(look for the full article in the upcoming book, "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change")



Carolina Gonzalez Schlenker MD MPH has worked for many years as a health advocate for Latinos and was co-founder and first President of the Latino Health Organization in 1994. She has worked in community medicine in the highlands of Chiapas in Tojolabal Mayan Indian communities training health promoters and practicing primary care. She has a Master in Public Health with a concentration on quality of care. She is currently a post doctoral fellow, health disparities at The Centre for Women's Health Research of University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Gloria E. Sarto MD PhD is a Professor at The University of Wisconsin Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and past Co-Director of the UW Center for Women's Health Research and was the first woman to be appointed President of The American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. She has been a local and national leader to raise awareness about health disparities and was part of the editorial board of "Unequal Treatment," a publication of The Institute of Medicine presenting evidence of the inequity that minorities face in health care settings.

Arts Used as Potent Tools for Social Change

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Contributor quotes......

Judith Marcuse, Richard Marcuse

FIRE…where there’s smoke

The ensemble, the JMP production, photograph by David Cooper

"In Canada and around the world, the arts are increasingly used as potent tools in social change and social innovation agendas, in poverty alleviation, health promotion and training, in many forms of education, in social justice, inter-cultural and environmental work and in many other settings. In the process of art making, diverse populations are engaged in imaginative expression helping to create insight and understanding, social cohesion, engagement, hope and new solutions. Whether the work creates employment, explores issues of racism, facilitates conflict resolution or HIV/AIDS stigma reduction, empowers women to assert their human rights, builds resilience in youth voices, strengthens marginalized communities, celebrates local histories, or simply provides new opportunities for expression and dialogue, art processes are highly effective tools for expanding and deepening knowledge and insight, for the creation of imaginative empathy and engagement and perhaps most importantly for engaging with the social issues themselves."

Judith Marcuse L.L.D. (Hon.) in collaboration with Richard Marcuse M.A., Cand. Phil.

(look for the complete article in the upcoming book, "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change")


Judith Marcuse has had a distinguished career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer in work for dance, theatre, opera, television and film. Her commitment to the marriage of artistic excellence and social relevance and her passion to integrate art in community life is at the core of her work in the theatre, the lecture hall, behind and in front of the camera and in her writing. Among her many honours she has received Canada's two major choreographic awards, the Chalmers (1976) and the Cliford E. Lee (1978). In 2000 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.

Judith Marcuse is Founder and Co-Director, International Centre for Art for Social Change, Adjunct Professor and Fellow, Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University. Richard Marcuse is a social anthropologist and Consulting Manager, Judith Marcuse Projects.