A Polydisciplinary Compendium: Becoming related: imagining other ways through art and awe

This critical-creative thesis project attunes to the intersections of art therapy, whiteness, and settler colonialism through a queer methodology rooted in relational accountability. Exploring how art therapy risks reproducing systemic harm when divorced from historical and sociopolitical context, the project proposes that the practice of art therapy and art therapists themselves are uniquely skilled and strategically positioned to be both creatively expressive and critically engaged.

The author’s inquiry over the last two years has asked the question “what role does art play in the personal political work of decolonizing practices specifically for white therapists and colonial institutions?” What they have found is that art is a practice that offers antidotes to the culture of dominance and is an accessible way to stay with the trouble of our own emotionality and unlearning.

Through a weaving of theory, personal narrative, and creative practice - including a companion booklet of poetry, art, and reflection - the work centers a decolonial, anti-racist, and neurodivergent lens. This project calls on art therapists and art therapy to move towards directional accountability and embodied, justice-oriented practice. The project includes a literature review, a section on the limits and depths of language, lineage mapping, storytelling and a series of critical-creative art invitations.