Re:applications of creative arts therapy training

This is a story about cultural differences. In 1970 I taught Australian Aboriginal children at Borroloola, in the Northern Territory, 700 air miles South East of Darwin. It was a very isolated settlement. When I flew in there was only the pilot & me.

The black's camp was on the bank of the MacArthur River & the kids lived a traditional life. Many moved on to cattle stations after they left school.

For Art lessons I rolled the paper out the length of the classroom & the kids crawled all over the paper with pens, paint crayons & drew their landscape. There was intense happiness as they drew the river, the camp, snakes, goanna, fish, birds, their families & themselves.

They drew their hands & feet, the walking tracks, the tracks of animals & birds & roads, cars, trucks & "the Heron!" The plane that flew on to the dirt strip once a week. When the heron landed the kids ran out of the school to the dirt strip shouting, "heron, heron, heron!" at the tops of their lungs!" I didn't bother to stop their exhuberant behavior. That is the way things were there.

What I found curious was the way all the kids created art together. One student drew the heron, another drew the pilot, another colored in the sketch... quite naturally & without discussion. People added on to each other's work & everyone was happy & pleased to admire the finished product.

Several years later I did a few weeks teaching at a primary school in inner in Wellington, New Zealand. The students were a racially mixed group. Their parents were from the upper/middle class. For our art lesson I found some newsprint & rolled it out on the floor. Some students objected that they were being asked to sit on the floor. Some were upset that they didn't have their own sheet of paper. Most put borders around a space before even beginning to work. They asked, "what do we have to draw?" When I replied anything you want some were happy, many looked confused, sad & even distressed.

I remember thinking at the time that so called civilised people think they have it all worked out.

Replies:

Re:applications of creative arts therapy training, by Lindsay Smith, 11/11/02 Re:applications of creative arts therapy training, by Martin Perdoux, 11/11/02

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