American Journal of Community Psychology, Aug 1, 2022
Research has highlighted the importance of Indigenous knowledge and cultural practice in healing ... more Research has highlighted the importance of Indigenous knowledge and cultural practice in healing from ongoing histories of trauma, dispossession, and displacement for Indigenous peoples in Australia and elsewhere. Connection with culture, Country, and kinship has been identified as protective factors for Aboriginal social and emotional well-being and as facilitating cultural healing. This paper draws on stories mediated through cultural practice specifically, Wayapa and bush-dyeing workshops, to explore how women resignified experiences and engaged in "healing work." Our collaborative analysis of the stories shared resulted in three main themes that capture dialogs about the need for culturally safe spaces, vulnerability and identity, and culture, Country, and place. Centering Aboriginal knowledge, our analysis shows the meanings of Country, spirituality, and the coconstitution of people, culture, and the natural environment. Through Indigenous cultural practice, the women "grew strength in relationship" as they engaged in the psychosocial processes of deconstruction, reclamation, and renarrating personal and cultural identities.
This chapter focuses on responding to the existing practice of Artist Run Initiatives in contempo... more This chapter focuses on responding to the existing practice of Artist Run Initiatives in contemporary art. I propose that there are multiple and complex cultural, social and economic reasons why Aboriginal artists don't broadly or regularly show in artist run spaces. It proposes that ARIs are white dominated and have not been historically inclusive of Aboriginal artists and community members despite Aboriginal artists being prolific and part of the worlds oldest culture. It proposes that Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing could improve ARI practices & involve Aboriginal artists to a greater degree in future.
In this article, four women engage, talk, and write about Indigenous sovereignty in Australia's s... more In this article, four women engage, talk, and write about Indigenous sovereignty in Australia's southeast-the region of Australia most devastated by colonial incursion and the site of vibrant cultural activism in the present day. We are two non-Indigenous academics (Sabra Thorner and Fran Edmonds) working together with two Indigenous artist-curators (Maree Clarke and Paola Balla) in a process of collaborative, intercultural culture-making. We mobilise two ethnographic examples-Maree Clarke's backyard and the 2016-2017 Sovereignty exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art-to assert that decolonising is an ongoing process which requires that non-Indigenous peoples acknowledge their own privilege, learn Aboriginal histories, imagine both difference and coexistence; and that the goals of decolonisation are as diverse as the activists calling for it. In both contexts, art/culture-making, alongside storytelling, are crucial forms of Indigenous knowledge production, led by Aboriginal women via their engagements with the artworld(s) in Melbourne and beyond.
American Journal of Community Psychology, Aug 1, 2022
Research has highlighted the importance of Indigenous knowledge and cultural practice in healing ... more Research has highlighted the importance of Indigenous knowledge and cultural practice in healing from ongoing histories of trauma, dispossession, and displacement for Indigenous peoples in Australia and elsewhere. Connection with culture, Country, and kinship has been identified as protective factors for Aboriginal social and emotional well-being and as facilitating cultural healing. This paper draws on stories mediated through cultural practice specifically, Wayapa and bush-dyeing workshops, to explore how women resignified experiences and engaged in "healing work." Our collaborative analysis of the stories shared resulted in three main themes that capture dialogs about the need for culturally safe spaces, vulnerability and identity, and culture, Country, and place. Centering Aboriginal knowledge, our analysis shows the meanings of Country, spirituality, and the coconstitution of people, culture, and the natural environment. Through Indigenous cultural practice, the women "grew strength in relationship" as they engaged in the psychosocial processes of deconstruction, reclamation, and renarrating personal and cultural identities.
This chapter focuses on responding to the existing practice of Artist Run Initiatives in contempo... more This chapter focuses on responding to the existing practice of Artist Run Initiatives in contemporary art. I propose that there are multiple and complex cultural, social and economic reasons why Aboriginal artists don't broadly or regularly show in artist run spaces. It proposes that ARIs are white dominated and have not been historically inclusive of Aboriginal artists and community members despite Aboriginal artists being prolific and part of the worlds oldest culture. It proposes that Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing could improve ARI practices & involve Aboriginal artists to a greater degree in future.
In this article, four women engage, talk, and write about Indigenous sovereignty in Australia's s... more In this article, four women engage, talk, and write about Indigenous sovereignty in Australia's southeast-the region of Australia most devastated by colonial incursion and the site of vibrant cultural activism in the present day. We are two non-Indigenous academics (Sabra Thorner and Fran Edmonds) working together with two Indigenous artist-curators (Maree Clarke and Paola Balla) in a process of collaborative, intercultural culture-making. We mobilise two ethnographic examples-Maree Clarke's backyard and the 2016-2017 Sovereignty exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art-to assert that decolonising is an ongoing process which requires that non-Indigenous peoples acknowledge their own privilege, learn Aboriginal histories, imagine both difference and coexistence; and that the goals of decolonisation are as diverse as the activists calling for it. In both contexts, art/culture-making, alongside storytelling, are crucial forms of Indigenous knowledge production, led by Aboriginal women via their engagements with the artworld(s) in Melbourne and beyond.
Uploads
Papers by Paola Balla