Creative Arts -- Nourishing Children's Development
Participation in Creative Activities enriches development in many ways. Selecting natural objects during walks along the beach and bush trails, involves physical activity. Creative arts can lead to appreciation of the natural environment, and greater attention to living things around us. The chance to slow down, and sense the sight, sounds, smells around us is important to enriching our development as we are being, and becoming artists, musicians, creators with our friends, families, and communities.
Creative Arts has been central to Occupational Therapy which arose in response to medical conditions in mental institutions, and hospitals in the early 20th Century. My education and training as an Occupational Therapist involved Creative Arts Laboratories in which we explored and applied arts, crafts, and woodwork, to therapy practice. This was hinged upon our study in Anatomy, Physiology, Neurology, Community Health, Sociology, Psychology, and Occupational Therapy. I chose this career path because of my interest in creative arts, health and working with people of all ages.
Following my graduation and employment as an Occupational Therapist at Ipswich General Hospital, I returned to my old high school (Coorparoo Secondary College) at age 36 and completed music courses. This allowed me entry to complete Bachelor of Music at UniSQ, and Bachelor of Arts courses at UQ.
I took on research projects and occupational therapy practice in these areas--largely concerned with nourishing children's development:
1. Dalcroze Music Education -- Applied the creative musical principles of Emile Dalcroze's philosophy to NeuroDevelopmental Therapy and Sensory Integration. I shared this knowledge in workshops with music students at UniSQ, Occupational Therapists, and Music Teachers. I use an active learning approach to music-making with children through whole body movement, creating stories, working together, and learning to listen, in my therapy practice.
2. Establishing the Purga Music Museum in my neighbourhood in rural Ipswich, Queensland. This involved researching the music history of the area, including the life of renowned Aboriginal tenor, Harold Blair, and music educator/composer, Meta Maclean. 'The Purga Music Story and Harold Blair' has become an inspiration for music education, and community music development. I am interested to explore digitisation of the resources to share online, and further the performance of Purga Music cultural traditions. I developed a student project as part of completing the Graduate Certificate in Education (Digital Learning and Leadership), in 2020. Looking for people interested to assist.
3. 'Frameworks of Culturally Engaged Community Music Practice in Rural Ipswich, Australia' was the title of my Master of Philosophy research thesis at Queensland Conservatorium (Kirkwood, 2010). The community music projects that I undertook from 2003 to 2009 needed theoretical frameworks, because they were a new emerging area of practice for an Occupational Therapist in Community Music Development. I collaborated with Purga Elders and Descendants Aboriginal Corporation, Purga Friends Association, Inc, local people, and local government with a grant from Ipswich City Council and Arts Queensland. I wrote up and published the findings and presented at professional conferences to make the research findings widely available.
4. Ipswich Thistle Pipe Band -- Centennial History of the Band research and development. I collaborated with the band and some Occupational Therapy students to listen/document oral history accounts of band members and supporters. This led to writing a book with the band that included historical photographs and recordings of their 100-year history (Kirkwood, 2009). The frameworks of culturally engaged community music were further documented and revised--with cultural comparison between Scottish pipe band, and local Aboriginal song/dance traditions in Ipswich. The First Hundred Years of the Ipswich Thistle Pipe Band--A Community of Discovery Approach to Participatory Action Research was published (Kirkwood, 2008) to make the research publicly available.
5. Music Health Australia -- was established in 2008 as my private practice for community cultural development and music research. A group of musicians, health professionals, and educators joined with me to form an online interest group for sharing ideas and networking about our experiences. Culturally Engaged Community Music practice grew in an atmosphere of research and sharing out knowledge (see professional conference presentations at Slideshare, Music Health Australia).
6. Creating Music Stories -- was a commission I received in 2012 from Norma Tracey, Gunnawirra Services, Redfern, Sydney. I developed music tutorials for use with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in 43 preschools in New South Wales. These were uploaded to the Tracking the Milky Way website and are available on Slideshare for use by early childhood educators. I published concepts from the project as music research with Prof Adrian Miller, PhD supervisor, Indigenous Research Unit, Griffith University in the Australasian Journal of Music Research (Kirkwood & Miller, 2014). See 'The Impact of New Technologies on Musical Learning of Indigenous Australian Children.'
7. Minjerribah Music History -- was the area of research for my Doctor of Philosophy candidacy on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah). The University of Newcastle provided a PhD research scholarship from 2014 to 2016. I collaborated with the Minjerribah Museum, Dunwich State School, and Yulu Burri Ba Aboriginal Corporation for Community Health, and local people to learn about participation in music-making on the island. The PhD research has not yet been completed, but I presented early findings at the Museums Australia conference in 2015 and published in professional journals. I learned more about tailoring frameworks for culturally engaged community music to local people, and the ways of negotiating community-led projects using Indigenist research frameworks. See 'Music Museum Curatorship: Reclaiming Rights and Responsibilities for Music-Making on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island.'
8. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Health Research -- While I was employed by UQ / QUT as a Research Assistant on the Coolamon Project (The George Institute for Health, NHMRC Grant), I noticed that there were language barriers for children and their families at the Queensland Children's Hospital. This led to my research developing 'Functional Taxonomic Description for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthcare for the 21st Century.' This was review of the use of the World Health Organisation International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health with children who had sustained burns injuries and trauma, which I presented in 2019, at the AIATSIS National Indigenous Research Conference at QUT, Brisbane. I supported a PhD candidate with her research into Health-Related Quality of Life for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children.
Occupational Therapy Private Practice (Brisbane Bayside--Wynnum Manly)
It was necessary to continue in Occupational Therapy private practice because the community development research was reliant on very scarce funding from grants and scholarships. The COVID-19 Pandemic period in 2020 led me to rely on self-employment in private practice and tutoring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at UniSQ. I thrive in this environment because I use the knowledge from community music research and 42 years employment as an Occupational Therapist in my daily therapy practice. I draw on my therapy toolkit and experiences over decades in many different service environments in south-east Queensland. I have seen many changes in the human services sector, the most recent being the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). I saw the need to go beyond individual therapy service provision, to provide a more connected, collaborative, place-based approach.
SEA-TEAM is the next exciting chapter of therapy creative arts practice for me, following a sea change to Brisbane Bayside. This is a new practice framework that I am developing of: Social Enrichment through the Arts with Therapists, Educators, Artists, and Musicians. I am interested to see how this approach plays out in the current economic environment with my priorities for primary health care, aging in place, understanding and supporting the respectful enrichment of local community cultural traditions, and children's development. I study the service provision environment and advocate for positive, direction changes.
I enjoy discussing ideas and approaches with people who are interested in this area. I hope to research and publish further on Frameworks for Culturally Engaged Community Music Practice. Always learning, always growing, always trying new ideas. Hope you will join me in following developments.
References -- links to my bio and research publications can be found at https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1770-4656
Author: Sandra Kirkwood
Contact: mobile 0488 624 362
Comments
Post a Comment